Them past two weeks have been the most productive that I have ever had, the data logger is almost complete, I found several indicator species and got good pictures and videos of them, and I found RBV surveys of the bantam river on the CT DEEP website. The bugs that live in the Bantam river are good indicators of water quality especially the two stonefly species and the saddle case maker caddisfly. The Flat-headed mayfly is also a great indicator of good water quality. I found all of these bugs in the fast flowing riffles above Peggys pool however below that almost all the water is stagnant. I have found the cause of the stagnant water, a large beaver dam that has started to form a large pond. the water below the beaver dam is chockfull of stoneflies, caddisflies, and mayflies, I even found crayfish and dragonfly larvae. In total beneath the beaver dam I found 2 possibly 3 different species of stoneflies (common stonefly and the golden stonefly maybe yellow stonefly) , 4 different species of caddisflies (saddle case maker, cornucopia case maker, common net spinner, and free living) , and 1 species of mayflies (flathead). The most abundant bug I found above Peggys was the Flathead mayfly I found it under almost every rock I turned over in the riffles. It is very interesting that this species of bug which has a fairly low tolerance for pollution compared to other macro invertebrates is so abundant. Below the beaver dam the most abundant species of macro invertebrate was the common stonefly I found 5 of them under a single rock. I would like to get out on the river and do some more comparisons of the bugs found above and below the large beaver dam.
