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What's Up With The Caddisfly Emerger Bubble?

5K views 28 replies 8 participants last post by  GAT 
#1 ·
Gary LaFontaine claimed that some caddisfly emergers somehow create and air bubble and use it to emerge.
Supposedly, he said he had seen the activity while using scuba gear in a river. I've heard other aquatic entomologist dispel the notion. They claim that the bugs sometimes take on a shiny appearance when emerging but they don't go along with the bubble bit. The shiny appearance, they claim, may be what Gary saw and it wasn't really an air bubble. The shiny appearance may also explain why Gary's pattern works as well as it does.

I do know that some bugs will carry an air bubble with them when they dive subsurface but they do so because they are above water and in the open air.

I've given this a lot of thought and I'm having a hard time figuring out how a caddis can generate a bubble when it is subsurface. Sure, there is oxygen in the water and that's where their gills come in but for them to create a bubble to use to rise to the surface seems unlikely.

I'm on the fence. Is it fact or fiction that an emerging caddisfly generates a bubble to help it rise to the surface? Inquiring minds need to know :)
 
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