Dobsonflies are a subfamily of insects, Corydalinae, part of the Megalopteran family Corydalidae. The larvae (commonly called hellgrammites) are aquatic, living in streams, and the adults are often found along streams as well. The nine genera of dobsonflies are distributed in the Americas, Asia, and South Africa.

2024年4月4日 · Dobsonfly larvae are also known as hellgrammites and are the larvae of one of the largest insect species in the world. They are not flies but rather belong to the order Megaloptera. These aquatic larvae have elongated bodies and leg-like appendages with hairy gill tufts, giving them a centipede-like appearance.

2023年6月20日 · Megaloptera includes alderflies (Family: Sialidae), fishflies and dobsonflies (Family: Corydalidae), but it is the corydalid larvae that are commonly referred to as hellgrammites (Voshell 2002; Bowles and Contreros-Ramos 2019).

Hellgrammites are the aquatic larval stage of dobsonflies. The head is equipped with a pair of sharp pincers that can deliver a painful (but harmless) bite. The segmented abdomen of a hellgrammite has 8 pairs of pointed, leglike appendages along the sides, each with a fuzzy-looking gill tuft at the base.

2024年4月16日 · Larvae. The hellgrammite larva is unique because dobsonflies have one of the longest larval stages among the insects of this family. Exclusively aquatic during this stage of their life cycle, the dobsonfly larvae cannot survive anywhere else other than the cool and clean running water of a stream.

Its larvae, known as hellgrammites, are the top invertebrate predators in rocky streams where they occur. Adult male dobsonflies are particularly spectacular because of their large sickle-shaped mandibles (jaws). There are a total of thirty species of Corydalus (Contreras-Ramos 1997), mostly from South America.

2014年6月2日 · The hellgrammites (sometimes called “toe-biters”) are top invertebrate predators in their ecosystems, preying on a wide variety of other soft-bodied insects and capable of inflicting a painful bite to humans with their large mandibles.

Larvae (called hellgrammites) are active hunters, feeding on other insect larvae. It’ll take around 12 molts to pupate and even then, those 12 molts could take at least 1 year and up to 3 to happen. When ready, they dig a hole into the sand and form a pre-pupa for about 14 days, then they spend another 7 to 14 days as a full pupa.

Aquatic immature stages, called hellgrammites are elongate, dull colored larvae with gill filaments and feathery gill clusters along the sides of the abdomen. They have two hooks on the end of the abdomen.

2004年3月7日 · The hellgrammite is the larvae form of the Alderfly or Dobson fly. The genus is so similar that we share incorporate one to the other for the sake of discussion. The alderfly larvae, known to all and coveted by fish and anglers alike, is the hellgrammite.