This week we were doing some tree planting along the Otonabee River shoreline at Rotary Park, north of the London Street Footbridge. The kids we were working with found two incredible looking bugs in the soil that I haven’t been able to identify. Do you know what these monsters of the soil are? They were both quite fearsome looking larva!
transforming larval fishfly 2 (Chauliodes rastricornis) Erin McGauley
Erin McGauley, Peterbrough
Mystery solved
The beetle-like insect on the cloth is the larval stage of the Dog-day Cicada (Tibicen canicularis) and the second is a transforming larval fishfly (Chauliodes rastricornis). Larvae of the cicada are subterranean, feeding on the roots of trees; larvae of the fishfly are aquatic but in the last instar come ashore, locate a pupal chamber, usually in a rotten log, and then transform to winged adults. Don Sutherland, Zoologist, Natural Heritage Information Centre
Dog-day Cicada larva 2 – Erin McGauley
Dog-day- Cicada larva – Erin McGauley
transforming larval fishfly (Chauliodes rastricornis) -Erin McGauley June 27, 2014
