Do you remember this bug from the aquatic insect and crustacean expedition? It's been identified by John & Jane Balaban at bugguide.net as Calopterygidae — the larva of a broad-winged damselfly. I have played liberally with the white balance in order to display features of the larva. This post has been cross-posted on Barton Daily Photo.
These are all examples of caddisflies, collected during an aquatic insect and crustacean field trip on the Missisquoi River by our fifth and sixth graders. You can see the caddisfly emerging from their homes of pieces of twigs, plants and silk that they make. 
Interestingly, caddisflies and stoneflies are signs that the water in which they live is very clean.
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Stonefly, Order Piecoptera (good trout bait) from fifth and sixth grade aquatic insect and crustacean expedition last week.
Wordless Wednesday
(click on the photo to open it, full-size, in a new window)Adults are about 1/2 inch long, black and white colored, swim upside down on their backs, have triangular-like (boat-shaped) bodies, and large eyes. They are kidney shaped, with a four segmented beak, and antennae in three to four segments concealed between the head and thorax. There is an irregular brown and blackish band across the wings at the base of the membranous portion. The front and middle legs are fitted for grasping while the hind legs are flattened, fringed and fitted for swimming. They are often seen on the water surface with their long hind legs held straight out and pointed forward, poised for a fast start. They live in all kinds of water (fresh to scum-covered stagnant) and overwinter as adults. They fly long distances, often in swarms and are attracted to lights. The life cycle requires about 40 days. They feed on insects, tadpoles and small fish. They can bite, causing pain much like a bee sting when handled carelessly.However, Troutnut says that "backswimmers are often important to trout, especially in ponds. They're one of the insects which usually doesn't factor into a fly angler's decisions at all, but it pays to be aware of them because in just-so situations the trout eat nothing else." This BBC site has great information on this bug that is also called a water boatman.
Camera Critters or the graphic above.
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My computer crashed, my cameras stopped working, but I got this photo on a school expedition on the river. I have forgotten the name of the bug that lives in this little house of bark that it made. I will fix this post tomorrow but wanted to post it tonight.Wordless Wednesday
Heads or Tails