New Zealand dobsonfly
The New Zealand dobsonfly spends most of its life as a big larva living under water in streams. The larva has a flat black head, strong jaws and feathery gills along its pale body. When it finally grows up, it gets wings and lives on land for only about a week.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The larva lives in the water for 2 to 5 years before it becomes a grown-up.
The larva grows from about 2 millimetres to almost 4 centimetres, making it one of New Zealand's biggest freshwater insects.
It climbs out of the stream every time it sheds its skin, which no other kind is known to do.
The grown-up only lives for about 6 to 10 days and is most active at dusk and at night.
Finding these larvae in a stream is a good sign that the water is clean.
Most asked questions about New Zealand dobsonfly
?Why is it called a toe-biter?
Because the larva has big jaws and lives in streams where people wade.
?Is the New Zealand dobsonfly a real dobsonfly?
Not quite. It is really a fishfly, a close cousin of the dobsonflies.
?How long does a dobsonfly larva live?
The larva lives 2 to 5 years in the water, but the grown-up lives only about a week.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Archichauliodes diversus
- Group
- Other insects
- Family
- Corydalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Megaloptera > Corydalidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Toe-biter, Puene
Where the facts come from
- Archichauliodes diversus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Auckland Museum. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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