Citizens’ Environment Watch

1. Citizens’ Environment Watch Water Quality Monitoring with Benthic Macroinvertebrates Benthic Macroinvertebrate Identification Guide

2. Coelenterata (Hydras) • Size range: 2-25 mm long • Movement: sessile • Colour: variable, often clear to whitish • Inconspicuous, tube with tentacles • Asexual reproduction through budding

3. Turbellaria (Flatworm) • Size range: 5-30 mm • Movement: creep slowly on bottom • Colour: greyish brown, often ‘colourless’ • very flat • unsegmented • eyespots on head http://www.microscopyu.com/moviegallery/pondscum/platyhelminthes/dalyellia/

4. Nematoda (Roundworms) • Size range: usually <1 cm long • Movement: Rapid, whip-like movements • Colour: usually transparent • Unsegmented • Usually tapered at both ends

5. Oligochaeta (Aquatic Earthworm) • Size range: 1-30 mm • Movement: crawl along bottom of tray • Colour: pinkish, light brown • Similar appearance to earth worm, with bundles of hairs on each segment behind the first • Segmented body with clitellum (swollen, glandular region)

6. Hirudinea (Leech) • Size range: 5-400 mm • Movement: inch along bottom with the aid of suckers at either end of body • Colour: brown, black, green on top/orange on bottom • Segmented body • Often with several pairs of eyes on head

7. Isopoda (Sow Bug) • Size range: 5-20 mm • Movement: crawl slowly on bottom • Colour: brownish, red • Many pairs of legs (up to 8) • Dorso-ventrally compressed • Often associated with organic matter

8. Pelecypoda (Clam) • Size range: 2-250 mm • Movement: none (found at bottom of tray) • Colour: white, yellow, brown, grey, black • Hard shell • Flat, 2 halves hinged • Do not count empty shells

9. Amphipoda (Scud) • Size range: 5-20 mm • Movement: swim on side • Colour: blueish grey, brown, green, red • Many pairs of legs (up to 14) • Long antennae http://mywebpages.comcast.net/kils/hyperia/hyperia1.htm

10. Decapodae (Crayfish) • Size range: 10-150 mm • Movement: walk on bottom • Colour: green, brown, blue • Similar appearance to lobster • Large claws • Eyes on small stalks • Escapes backwards by beating tail

11. Hydrachnida (Water Mite) • Size range: 0.4-3 mm • Movement: appear like a small moving dot - uncoordinated, scrambling • Colour: bright red, green, blue or brown • Round body • 4 pairs of legs http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/moviegallery/pondscum/arachnids/hydracarina/

12. Ephemeroptera (Mayfly) • Size range: 3-28 mm (not including tail) • Movement: Swim up and down in ‘s’ pattern • Colour: brown or brownish black (sometimes mottled) • 3 pairs of legs • Single tarsal claw • Feather-like gills under abdomen • 3 tail filaments (sometimes only 2 filaments are present)

13. Anisoptera (Dragonfly) • Size range: 15-45 mm • Movement: slow • Colour: green to greenish brown • Larger than mayfly but without tail filaments; no visible external gills • Modified labium for catching prey • Large eyes and head • Often flat

14. Zygoptera (Damselfly) • Size range: 10-26 mm • Movement: slow moving but more active than dragonflies • Colour: green to greenish brown • 3 gills present on end of tail • Thinner than dragonfly • Three pairs of legs

15. Plecoptera (Stonefly) • Size range: 5-50mm • Movement: slow • Colour: yellowish, brown or blackish (sometimes mottled) • Similar to mayfly but with 2 tail filaments • Sometimes feather-like gills under body (not dorso-lateral on abdomen) • Tarsi with 2 claws

16. Hemiptera (True Bug) • Size range: 15-40 mm • Movement: swimming or skimming on water surface • Colour: black or brownish • Legs sometimes long and stick out from body • Often 2 pairs of soft folded wings • Often with well developed breathing appendages • Sucking mouth parts (rostrum)

17. Megaloptera (Helgrammite) • Size range: 25-90 mm • Movement: Crawl on bottom • Colour: brown • Large, similar in appearance to centipedes (the ‘hairs’ are actually gill filaments) • 3 pairs of legs in anterior abdominal segments • Well developed mandibles • Often with anal prolegs

18. Trichoptera (Caddisfly) • Size range: 2-50 mm • Movement: Slow movements on bottom • Colour: abdomen cream coloured • Often no movement if found in cases of sticks, stone or sand (look for heads inside cases) • Three pairs of legs behind head • Dorsal thoracic plates variously sclerotized • Anal prolegs with hooks

19. Lepidoptera (Aquatic Moths) • Size range: 10-25 mm • Movement: crawls like a caterpillar • Head with ring of ocelli (small simple eye) • 3 pairs of short, segmented, thoracic legs (between head and abdomen) • Ventral, abdominal prolegs http://www.nature.ca/rideau/b/b5b-e.html#synclita

20. Coleoptera (Beetle) • Size range: 2-40 mm • Movement: swimming or crawling on bottom • Colour: brown, black, mottled • Most have 3 pairs of legs near head • Larvae are similar to caddisfly larvae but bodies are hard, with mandibles, maxillae, labium and 2- or 3-segmented antennae; may have unsegmented terminal abdominal appendages • Adults: hardened forewings protect soft hind wings, antennae with 11 or fewer segments

21. Gastropoda (Snail) • Size range: 2-70 mm • Movement: none (found floating or at bottom of tray) • Colour: grey, brown or black • Hard shell • Spiral shaped • Do not count empty shells

22. Chironomidae (Midge) • Size range: 2-20 mm • Movement: whip back and forth • Colour: red, white or cream • Segmented body • Shaped like letter “J” when preserved • May be in tube of silt • Well developed, hardened head with eyes; anterior and posterior parapods (lobed shaped body extensions)

23. Tabanidae (Horsefly) • Size range: 1.5-40 mm • Movement: unknown • Colour: white or cream • pointed at both ends, leathery texture • Segmented, straight or slightly curved • 7 pairs of bumps on abdomen (creeping welts with hooks) • Head retracted into thorax

24. Culicidae (Mosquitos) • Size range: 3-15 mm • Movement: twitches when touched • Colour: brown • Thickened body at head • Segmented body, curved at one end http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/b-txt/bimg221.html

25. Ceratopogonidae (no-see-ums) • Size range: 3-13mm • Movement: whipping motion, but stiff when picked up • Very slender, pointed at both ends, segmented; small pointed sclerotized (hard) head • No abdominal appendages; may have some terminal abdominal hairs http://www.junglewalk.com/popup.asp?type=v&AnimalvideoID=3160

26. Tipulidae (Cranefly) • Size range: 10-45 mm • Movement: similar to a worm • Colour: white, yellowish or light brown • One end with finger like projection, lobes or long hairs • Reduced head is retracted into thorax • Soft body; may have creeping welts http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/diptera/tipulidae/3936.94craneflylarv.html

27. Simuliidae (Blackfly) • Size range: 3-15 mm • Movement: Similar to an inch worm • Colour: brown or greyish • Often with labral fans • Similar to flattened maggot with one end 1/3 fatter • Sessile (non-motile), attached at posterior end

28. Misc. Diptera (Misc. True Flies) • Size range varies • May have parapods, pseudopodia (temporary projection), creeping welts or other appendages, but no jointed thoracic legs • Often maggot-like; head may be retracted into thorax • Adults with one pair of wings

29. References • Images and characteristics adapted from Gartner Lee Limited, 1997 and Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network, 2005 • Commonness rankings from Jacques Whitford Environmental Limited, 2001 • Tolerance values taken from Watershed Report Card, 2000

30. Thank You! For more information, please contact: Citizens’ Environment Watch 401 Richmond St. W. Suite 380 Toronto ON M5V 3A8 P: (647) 258-3280 F: (416) 979-3155 www.citizensenvironmentwatch.org info@citizensenvironmentwatch.org