While female dobsonflies are magnificent, males really have something special in their enormous sick

While female dobsonflies are magnificent, males really have something special in their enormous sickle-shaped mandibles. Careful observations of mano-a-mano encounters between male dobsonflies reveal that their super large mandibles are used in combat, to dislodge competitors from substrates where potential mates might be present. These mandibles are useless for capturing prey and both male and female dobsonflies, which have powerful jaws, are not predatory. As adults they do not eat and only lives for up to one week.
.
You may encounter dobsonflies in the morning near lighted buildings, as both sexes are attracted to light. After mating, female dobsonflies deposit eggs on vegetation overhanging water. Hatchlings drop to the stream below to roam the benthos in search of prey. Larval development can take from one to three years.
.
Juvenile dobsonflies go by the name of hellgrammites and live a life aquatic. These fierce predators roam the interstitial spaces between stones and vegetation at the bottom of rapidly flowing streams where they capture and dine on immature mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies. Their powerful jaws can deliver a memorable bite to unsuspecting humans attempting a capture. They are a key indicator of stream health and not found in polluted waters. Fish adore them and they are excellent bait. Like many aquatic insects, hellgrammites have gills lining the margins of the abdomen enabling them to extract oxygen from their watery habitat. In an unusual developmental twist, they also have spiracles, breathing ports, which allow them to obtain air on land. This adaptation is critical to their amphibious life style as they climb out of the water to build pupal chambers on land beneath stones, logs, or other moist protected structures.
.
Subfamily: Corydalinae
.
Photo 1: Igor Siwanowicz
Photo 2: @coyotepeterson
https://www.instagram.com/p/CADXe3wns37/?igshid=1sbhvmz4d1mfc