Types of Bugs

There are four types of Benthic Macroinvertabrates: Shredders, Scrapers, Collectors, and Predators.

 

Scrapers eat algae and diatoms off rocks and other hard things. They are found at the bottom where the sunlight can reach the bottom of the stream. They hold on very tight on the hard surfaces so they do not get washed away in the current. They include snails, limpets, and mayfly larvae.

 

Shredders eat leaves and things that are organic. They live in places where the tops of the trees are dense so they get leaves and other stuff. They chew that stuff until it is very small and then spit it back out. Some examples are stonefly larva and scuds.

Collectors eat fine organic matter that the shredders chewed up. They also eat other bugs waste. There are two groups of collectors, filterers and gatherers. Filterers filter the water to get their food. gatherers gather their food. They are found at the bottom of the stream. They are worms, blackfly larva, mayfly larva and caddisfly larva.