The sun shone bright from behind the thick gray clouds, then the wind came and with it scattered flakes of snow.
Once again the pond has overflowed her banks. I squatted on the edge the tips of my boots touching the water. It looked like the hens had made a nest in the gravel and rocks under the water. Just like the nests they make out of loose hay in the barn.
That’s what I was looking at, wondering if I’d see the animal that created the “nest”, when I noticed the twig.
It was about an inch long and looked so much like the rest of the pond debris around it. The only difference was that this twig was moving, not with the flow of the water or only when the wind blew, but with intention.
Up and down it went on a longer twig covered in algae. Then it rested on a rock for a few seconds, did a little wandering around and came back to the algae covered twig.
It wasn’t easy to get a video of, but when I was able to focus my iPhone, I was able to see the small moving twig more clearly.
I had no idea what it was until I got back to the house and googled “insect that looks like a small twig in a pond”.
That’s when I found out about the Caddisfly Larva.
Using silk that they secrete to hold it together a Caddisfly larva makes a potable case for itself. The silk can expand and contract like a rubber band so the case is flexible. The larva make their cases from those things around them, like rocks, leaves and bark.
Some of the pictures of Caddisfly larva covered in rocks make they look like they are wearing a coat of jewels. The Caddisfly in our pond is a little less fancy. It looks to me like it made its case from the bark of a twig.
Which is why it looks just like a twig.
You have to look closely in the video to see the Caddisfly. But just look for the inch long twig that is moving and you’ll see it.
And if you click here you can see some amazing photos of Caddisfly Larva in their jewel-like rock cases and learn more about them too.
Good sign in the pond! I recently retired from my county Conservation District (Soil & Water in NY) and one of the things our watershed specialist would do this time of year is stream sampling. This entails wadding into our streams (usually they do 15 different sites every year in the county) turning over rocks and collecting whatever flows out from under them. The samples are them evaluated for aquatic insect/larvae to determine who is living in that part of a stream (along with other data collected about the water quality) Depending on who they find, determines the health of the stream. Caddisfly are one of the indicators of a healthy stream and good water quality. We love to find them, they are so cool!
Now that sounds like really fun work Marianna. I’m sure it had it difficulties like any job, but…. I saw another caddisfly larva today. This one with a different kind of case. It’s good to know that they are a sign of healthy water.