What are these adorable little…thingies?
July 8, 2018 4:58 PM Subscribe
What are these? They are about 3-4mm long and were seen in the clear, shallow, fast-moving water on top of Ripley Falls, a 100-foot waterfall in New Hampshire's White Mountains. They seemed to occur in clusters, and made me think of nothing so much as a herd of tiny aquatic cows. I think they're cute!
I assume the "ears" are gills, and that they are either filtering algae out of their gills for food or (more likely) scraping it off the granite substrate. I don't know what they are, though. An insect? A mollusc? A crustacean of some kind? (My current best guess is crustacean.) I did not turn one over to look at its underside, they were well attached and I was worried I might break them if I tried to move them. Speaking of which, is the one in the third image (first link goes to a multi-image Instagram post) rearing up on its hind…parts…or is it damaged?
Really though, what are these? I don't know, none of my RL friends know, neither do any of my ID apps, and frankly I'm not even sure what phylum they belong to. Help me out, hivemind!
I assume the "ears" are gills, and that they are either filtering algae out of their gills for food or (more likely) scraping it off the granite substrate. I don't know what they are, though. An insect? A mollusc? A crustacean of some kind? (My current best guess is crustacean.) I did not turn one over to look at its underside, they were well attached and I was worried I might break them if I tried to move them. Speaking of which, is the one in the third image (first link goes to a multi-image Instagram post) rearing up on its hind…parts…or is it damaged?
Really though, what are these? I don't know, none of my RL friends know, neither do any of my ID apps, and frankly I'm not even sure what phylum they belong to. Help me out, hivemind!
Water penny looks pretty close to me (I had never heard of those before -- neat!). It's the larval form of a genus of beetle. There are lots of photos of them here, but I don't see any with those "horns." The shape looks most similar to the subfamily Eubriinae. You can find a lot of information digging through that site, and you may be able to upload a photo for help identifying what you've found. Donald S. Chandler is an entomologist at UNH who comments on that site, including at least one comment about identifying water penny species -- I bet he'd know.
posted by whatnotever at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by whatnotever at 6:29 PM on July 8, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by humboldt32 at 5:06 PM on July 8, 2018