huwalu_ka_using's Favorites

~57 mm, caught in a bottle trap baited with beef liver & placed in a typha filled ditch among some emergent grasses. Still working on a write-up for the larvae of this species, but the main things I am looking out for is the shape of the anterior margin of the frontoclypeus, and the setal arrangement of the metatarsi.

Interestingly, this individual is a decent amount larger (~4mm) than the larvae of this species that I caught in Richmond. Upon catching them they were already exhibiting prepupation behaviours so I put them in a container with some damp peat and they are currently digging their pupation chamber as I write this.

Update: they have since emerged as an adult with a final length of 32 mm, added pictures to confirm D. cordieri.

Dip netted among some emergent grasses in a non-fishless blackwater slough. L3, ~35 mm at time of this observation, same species as my last Dytiscus observation.

Will be hopefully rearing to adulthood to confirm species.

Update: they have since pupated, final larval length of 52 mm.

Update: they have since emerged as an adult, confirming a female Dytiscus cordieri non-sulcate elytral morph. Better photos to come tomorrow.

Instar II larva, dip netted out of a non-fishless blackwater slough among some rushes. ~22 mm, same species as my previous non-D. hatchi Dytiscus larva observation.

Will be rearing them to adulthood to determine the species and take many more pictures & notes to hopefully come up with a comprehensive description of the larvae of this species.

Update: they have since pupated with a final larval length of 55 mm.

Update: they have since emerged as an adult, confirming them to be a male D. cordieri with a length of 31 mm.

L2 Dytiscus larva, another species I haven't seen before, not D. harrisii or D. hatchi, also doesn't appear to be the species of my last Dytiscus larva observation. Caught dip-netting in a blackwater slough.

Also hopefully going to rear this larva to adulthood to see what species they are.

Update: they have ecdysed into third instar.

L3 Dytiscus sp. larva, not D. harrisii or D. hatchi. Caught dip netting in the margins of this pond among some bur-reeds, will be rearing them to figure out the species.

Update: they have now pupated, final larval length of ~53 mm.

Update: they have now ecdysed into an adult, confirming them to be a female Dytiscus cordieri. ~29 mm, sulcate elytra morph.

L1 Dytiscus sp. larva, caught while dip-netting through a Potamogeton natans-filled, lentic, beaver pond runoff stream.

Looks to be the same species as my last Dytiscus observation which I believe to be D. harrisii on account of the larvae matching morphological and behavioural descriptions of the larvae described in Leclair et al. (1986) "Prey Choice in Larval Dytiscus harrisii Kirby and D. verticalis Say."
Notably, they have a relatively small head for the genus, shorter mandibles that are thicker basally than other species, a head that bends easily at 90°, and a frontoclypeus that's anterior margin is not rounded as in other Dytiscus sp. larvae and that's lateral apices extend beyond the anterior margin.

Update: has since pupated, with a final instar III length of ~62mm measured from urogomphi to mandibles.

Update: they have emerged as an adult with a final size of ~39mm, spending 19 days as a pupa before emergence.