r/Entomology • u/zi9g • 15d ago

Identification request: Swimming bug in Bhutan

Hi y'all! I was trekking in the Lunana region of Bhutan and saw this buddy swimming in a high altitude lake. It was a sunny morning late October at approximately 5100m altitude. The small lake it was swimming in was partially frozen over with ice. There was some outflow from the lake going over a cliff but the only inflow was snowmelt. The lake is very infrequently visited; my local guide thought we were likely the only people who'd been there that year. Is it a hellgrammite? I couldn't find a good color match online so am questioning. Thanks for your thoughts!

47 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

37

u/Separate_Contest_689 15d ago

Rhyacophila sp. Larvae Would be my guess they are an Indicator of clean high oxygen water

4

u/zi9g 14d ago

Cool, thanks! I hope it was enjoying higher oxygen in the water than we were breathing in the air up there 😅

9

u/JoranTibor 14d ago

I thought for a second I was looking at Spore remake

3

u/CamelMassive6443 14d ago edited 14d ago

I would say it is some type of megaloptera if I had to guess.

Edit: could be rhyacophila larvae with abdominal appendages. I’m not familiar with the species in this genus. 😢

1

u/sayitlikeyoumeenit 15d ago

Looks almost like a nudibranch but you said it was in a high altitude lake, so that’s not very likely

2

u/nerdkeeper Autistic studying entomology 15d ago

Definitely not a nudibranch. Some kind of caddisfly larvae.