Aquatic Insects, Spring 2022: Dr. Morse

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This semester, I took a 4000-level ENT course (as my first entomology course ever!)-- Dr. Ferro assured me that Dr. Morse would be patient and understanding, and he most certainly was.
I started the semester asking "what's the metathorax?" and ended the semester able to ID many things to family level on sight.
Having 4ish hours of scheduled, school-sponsored (and mandated!) outside time per week was fantastic. Here's one place we went, along Little River:
an image looking up a river towards a small waterfall with a large rock outcropping interrupting it

Here's some photos of things we saw. Number one: The Mayor, a large Corydalid (hellgrammite) that my friend Simon found at Little River!
a large vial filled with ethyl alcohol, holding an immense hellgrammite. It is visible among many other, smaller bugs at the bottom of the vial.
Number two: some cases of Helicopsychidae (caddisfly larvae) on a rock. These guys are cool because they make spiral/snail-shell shaped cases! There's only one genus
of Helicopsychidae in our area, Helicopsyche, which is nice for ID because in order to get a fellow out of his case, you either have to destroy the case or the fellow. Suboptimal.
someone's hand holding a large yellow rock with black dots on it