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 worms →23 lines
- What you can seeMany segments, round in cross section, with no legs and no hardened headMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- What you can seeBundles of fine bristles on most segments, sometimes visibleEPA-TUBIFICIDAE-1982, BRINKHURST-1986, INHS-WETZEL-CHECKLIST, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- What you can seeColour from white through red and tan to brown or blackMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- What you can seeBlunt at both ends with few other featuresEPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- What argues against itA sucker at each end means a leech, not a wormUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- What argues against itA hard head capsule with prolegs at each end means a midge larva, which is an insect — red midge larvae and red worms are both called bloodwormsMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- What argues against itA cranefly larva's head is concealed under the skin, so looking for a hard head will not separate a cranefly from a worm; use the fleshy lobes at its hind end insteadEPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- What argues against itNo segments at all, and a very long thin body, points to a horsehair wormMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- Declared limitThe regional guide gives 1 to 30 mm for most aquatic worms and up to 150 mm for the largest, so the upper figure is the extreme, not the norm.UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- Declared limitNo source consulted describes aquatic worms as free-swimming in the water column.MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Declared limitNo source consulted reports oligochaetes in the invertebrate drift, and none was found describing terrestrial earthworms washing into streams and being eaten there.MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Declared limitMost species-level identification of aquatic oligochaetes requires microscopic examination of chaetae; field observation is limited to segments, bristle bundles, body form, and the absence of suckers and a hard head capsule. The group stays one reviewed record for that reason.EPA-TUBIFICIDAE-1982, BRINKHURST-1986, INHS-WETZEL-CHECKLIST
- Size bandadult: 1-150 (most 1-30) mmUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS, MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, BRINKHURST-1986, EPA-TUBIFICIDAE-1982
- Water typelake-marginrecord’s sources
- Water typeriverrecord’s sources
- Water typestreamrecord’s sources
- Water typereservoirrecord’s sources
- Life stageadultrecord’s sources
- Where it sitsin soft sediment and siltUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
- Where it sitstubificids: head buried in a tube in the bottom with the rest of the body extending upward into the waterMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMSEvidence from: Tubifex and relatives (tubificids)
- Where it sitsquiet water with decaying organic materialMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS, UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTSEvidence from: Typical of tubificids; some small kinds live in swift water
- How it movesstretching and pulling like an earthwormMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- How it moveswaving in the water while anchored in the sedimentMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS · State · read 2026-09-02
- Water Resources Center, University of MinnesotaUMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS · University · read 2026-09-25
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 (prepared by the Xerces Society)EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE · National · read 2026-09-25
- U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyEPA-TUBIFICIDAE-1982 · National · read 2026-10-14
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans CanadaBRINKHURST-1986 · National · read 2026-10-14
- Illinois Natural History Survey, University of IllinoisINHS-WETZEL-CHECKLIST · University · read 2026-10-14
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
BRINKHURST-1986
- Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois
INHS-WETZEL-CHECKLIST
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-TUBIFICID-WORMS
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-TUBIFICIDAE-1982
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 (prepared by the Xerces Society)
EPA-MACROINVERT-FIELD-GUIDE
- Water Resources Center, University of Minnesota
UMW-AQUATIC-INVERTS
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