Moth Night is Next Wednesday!
Monday Moth Mystery

Fishfly or Dobsonfly?

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One of the cool thing about Moth Nights is that you learn about other cool insects.  (Our next moth night -- the Moth Ball -- is Wednesday night. Scroll down a few posts for more info.)

In June, I posted pics of several bugs attracted to my moth lights, including the photo above. Link is here.

One person ID'd it as Dobsonfly. Another ID'd it as a Fishfly. So I looked up both, and it's really hard to tell from a single photo. These are two very similar insects.

But in reading about both, I think the bug is a Fishfly because it has short mandibles and feathery antennae. (But as you know, I could be wrong!)

The link is here.

Equally cool is the fact that the larval stage of both bugs is called a hellgrammite -- one of the strangest (seemingly prehistoric) little creatures I've ever seen.

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