Evidence
Where all of this came from.
39 reference records rest on 224 published pages, and 109 of those come from state and provincial natural-resources departments. That suits a set of records about what lives in the water those departments survey. The rest is federal survey work, university and extension guides, and interagency reports. The counts are below. Every reviewed line sits behind a record or a search, with the sources standing behind its record.
How to read this
A line is cited as precisely as someone checked it.
Where a reviewer traced a line to the pages that carry it, the line names those pages and, when the evidence is narrower than the record, where it comes from — one coast, one lake, one region. 605 of 1049 of the lines below are traced that way. The rest show the sources standing behind their whole record, marked “record’s sources”, because nobody has yet checked which page carried which line, and printing a single citation there would be a mapping nobody made.
National
52
A federal or national government body — USGS, NOAA, EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Park Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
State
109
A state, provincial or commonwealth natural-resources department. Most of this carrier rests here, which suits it: these are the bodies that survey the water the records describe.
Interagency
12
A commission or joint survey run across several agencies, such as the Great Lakes Fishery Commission's forage task groups.
University
45
A university research programme, cooperative extension service or Sea Grant office. Published work, but not the agency that manages the water.
Journal
6
A peer-reviewed paper, or a curated scientific register such as the World Register of Marine Species. Added with the 2026-09-25 evidence review, which went to the primary study where no agency page said what a claim needed.
Probe leftovers
What the weekly check could not treat as ordinary.
These addresses are still the citations. The check named what it saw. None of them is a gone page in the MISIN sense, so the records were not rewritten to hide a redirect, a timeout, or a bot wall.
Iowa DNR — BluegillMoved
The cited address answers through a permanent redirect. GET on the page that lands still names Bluegill.
A same-site move that still names the animal is not the MISIN case. The citation stays until a reviewer reads the new address into the record.
CASG — market squidUnreachable from this network
The California Sea Grant market-squid page times out from the probe network.
NOAA still covers the same animal on this record. The CASG address stays; a timeout is not a reason to drop a citation.
Mass.gov — menhaden and longfin squidRefused the probe
Both creature-feature pages answered 403 from the probe network.
A bot wall is not evidence the page is gone. The citations stay; the weekly check does not fail the build on unverifiable.
Michigan DNR — crayfish identification PDFRefused the probe
The cited PDF answered 403 from the probe network.
A refused PDF is not a 404. The citation stays on the crayfish record until a reviewer can open it.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute — silversidesRefused the probe
The Menidia page answered 500 from the probe network.
A 500 is not a 404, and it is not a 403. The citation stays.
Claims
Every reviewed line in the app.
Aquatic beetles (Coleoptera) →27 lines
- What you can seeAdult: hard elytra (wing covers) meeting in a straight line down the back — not tent wings, not upright sailboat wingsNOAA-GLERL-COLEOPTERA, MDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, MDC-WHIRLIGIG-BEETLES
- What you can seePredaceous diving beetle adults trap air between the wing covers and the body before divingMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, UWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLEEvidence from: Predaceous diving beetles (Dytiscidae); Missouri and Wisconsin accounts
- What you can seeLarva: three pairs of thoracic legs and no portable case. Predaceous diving beetle larvae are elongate and flattened with strong pincer jaws; water-penny larvae are round, flat and paper-thinNOAA-GLERL-COLEOPTERA, MDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, EPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS
- What you can seeNo labium mask of Odonata. Some larvae end in a pair of filaments (predaceous diving beetles) or long filaments (crawling water beetles), so tails alone do not rule a beetle outEPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- What argues against itA portable mineral or leaf case is caddis, not a beetleEPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS
- What argues against itLeaf-like gills along the sides of the abdomen together with two or three long tails favor mayflyEPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS
- What argues against itA labium mask favors OdonataEPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS
- What argues against itA fallen hopper or ant on the film without elytra or an air bubble belongs with Terrestrialsrecord’s sources
- What argues against itA fish school is forage, not Coleopterarecord’s sources
- Declared limitColeoptera in water includes diving beetles, whirligigs, water scavengers and others; this is a broad group only.record’s sources
- Declared limitAdult elytra plus an air bubble is the strongest field combination; larvae are easier to confuse with other orders and need jaws, three pairs of legs and the lack of a case.NOAA-GLERL-COLEOPTERA, MDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- Declared limitThis preview never claims current density or a fishing pattern.record’s sources
- Size bandlarva: 3-76 (predaceous diving beetle larvae to about 51) mmMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, UWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDEEvidence from: Missouri, Wisconsin and West Virginia accounts
- Size bandadult: 3-38 (large predaceous diving beetles 25-38) mmMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, UWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, MDC-WHIRLIGIG-BEETLES, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDEEvidence from: Predaceous diving beetles (Dytiscidae); Missouri and Wisconsin accounts
- Water typeriverrecord’s sources
- Water typestreamrecord’s sources
- Water typelake-marginrecord’s sources
- Water typespringrecord’s sources
- Life stagelarvarecord’s sources
- Life stageadultrecord’s sources
- Where it sitsswimming in the water column (diving beetles)record’s sources
- Where it sitsat the surface film (whirligigs)record’s sources
- Where it sitsamong vegetation and on substraterecord’s sources
- How it movesrowing with hind legsMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLEEvidence from: Predaceous diving beetles (Dytiscidae); Missouri and Wisconsin accounts
- How it movescarrying a silvery air bubble or filmMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE, UWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLEEvidence from: Predaceous diving beetles (Dytiscidae); Missouri and Wisconsin accounts
- How it moveswhirling at the surfaceMDC-WHIRLIGIG-BEETLESEvidence from: Whirligig beetles (Gyrinidae); Missouri
- How it moveslarva crawling or swimming with mandibles forwardrecord’s sources
- NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research LaboratoryNOAA-GLERL-COLEOPTERA · National · read 2026-08-24
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE · State · read 2026-08-24
- U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyEPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS · National · read 2026-08-06
- West Virginia Department of Environmental ProtectionWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE · State · read 2026-09-04
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-WHIRLIGIG-BEETLES · State · read 2026-09-25
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Field StationUWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE · University · read 2026-09-25
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-WHIRLIGIG-BEETLES
- NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory
NOAA-GLERL-COLEOPTERA
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-MACRO-ID-TIPS
- University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Field Station
UWM-PREDACEOUS-DIVING-BEETLE
- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
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