| These are pictures of the shell of the water
penny beetle larva. They are almost round. It looks much like a tiny turtle
clinging to the stones on the bottom of the river. Unless you are looking
very carefully, you may not even notice it. They are called water pennies
because the shells look copper like the color of a penny. |
This is the gills of the larva, they
are the white stringy stuff. They absord the oxygen from the water. Water
pennies live in areas where there is plenty of oxygen, such as riffle
areas in rivers. They require eigth to ten parts per million of oxygen. |
These are pictures of the under side
of the larva. |
|
They are algae and small pieces of plants. It is an
herbivore, which means plant eater.
|
When they are adults, they look just like
an average beetle. They live out of the water close to the riffle area
in the water that they came from. The female goes back into the water
when it is time to lay her eggs. |
If this beetle wants to move to a new place, it can
just let go of its rock and float down river to a new place.
|
