# Dobsonfly lives only a few days as adult



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Dobsonfly lives only a few days as adult 

http://www.pennlive.com/columns/pat...?/base/columnists/1123924925297760.xml&coll=1

A ferocious-looking creature has been startling people along streams and rivers throughout the midstate.

With pincers nearly as long as its three-inch body and a wingspan of almost five inches, the male dobsonfly can be a scary sight on a window screen or at a porch light or lantern. 

However, it's the female, with her much smaller and less frightening pincers, that can deliver a pinch capable of drawing blood from a human finger.

The male's pincers can't really pinch and are used only for grasping the female during mating, which is the adult dobsonfly's only function during its short life of just a few days. 

Many will know the dobsonfly from its larval form, the hellgrammite, a dark reddish-brown to black, three-inch, grub-like critter with its own fearsome pincers that has drawn its share of blood from anglers using the insect as fishing bait. 

Hellgrammites are aquatic larvae of well-aerated streams and rivers, but they're not very good swimmers. 

Because of that, and because they are on the menu of predators ranging from crayfish to bass to raccoons, hellgrammites tend to use the many hooks protruding from their abdomens to keep themselves tightly wedged under large rocks. 

They wait there to ambush prey, which includes tadpoles, newts, the aquatic larvae of other insects and the like. 

After two to four years in the water, the hellgrammite has reaching maximum size and is ready to crawl onto land - sometimes as far as 50 feet from the water - and under a rock or log, where it will pupate until the following summer. Then it will emerge from its cocoon as a winged adult. 

The quick quiz: 

1. Dobsonflies go through a complete metamorphosis, which is sometimes referred to as ELPA. Can you guess what the letters ELPA represent? 

2. Can a hellgrammite breathe out of the water? 

3. True or false? The female dobsonfly lays her eggs in the water, where her larvae will spend the next few years. 

Answers: 1. Egg, Larva, Pupa, Adult. Those are the life stages of metamorphosis. 2. Yes. A hellgrammite breathes oxygen from the water through tufted gills on its abdomen, but it also can breathe air through the spiracles (breathing tubes) on its abdomen. 3. False. She lays her eggs above water level, on bridge abutments, overhanging vegetation or rocks and logs sticking out of the water. When the new larvae hatch, in a few days to two weeks, they drop into the water. 

Homework: 

Near a stream or river, drape a white or light-colored sheet over a clothesline or rope. At dusk, place a lantern in front of the sheet, turn it on and leave the scene until after dark. Return to see if you attracted any dobsonflies. Repeat. 

MARCUS SCHNECK: (610) 562-1884 or [email protected]. Schneck's outdoor writing also appears Wednesdays and Sundays in the Sports section, Sundays in the Travel section and regularly at www.pennlive.com.


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## jmoser (Sep 11, 2002)

Back East on the Delaware system the Dobsonflies are legendary after dark. Guides carry badminton raquets in their drift boats to slam them away. They can inflict terrible bites, can be mistaken for gigantic stoneflies.


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## redneckdan (Dec 14, 2004)

jmoser said:


> Back East on the Delaware system the Dobsonflies are legendary after dark. Guides carry badminton raquets in their drift boats to slam them away. They can inflict terrible bites, can be mistaken for gigantic stoneflies.


 
hmm...a cross between fly fishing and home run derby, could be intresting


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