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.
Cranefly larvae →23 lines
- What you can seeNo legs at all — flies are the only aquatic insect order whose larvae lack fully developed legsWVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO, WVDEP-ADV-MACRO, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE
- What you can seeThe rear end finishes in a spiracular disc ringed by fleshy lobes or tentacle-like projectionsWVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, EPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET
- What you can seeFleshy welts on the underside of some abdominal segments — swellings, not hooked prolegsWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13
- What you can seeA rounded head capsule that is present but usually withdrawn into the body and hard to seeWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, EPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13
- What you can seeVery small hairs along either side, and a translucent skin with the gut line visible insideEPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET, MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE
- What argues against itA hard dark head clearly sticking out in front, on a thin worm-like body with two pairs of hook-tipped prolegs, is a midge larva. Bright red also points to a midgeWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, EPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET
- What argues against itNo head, thorax or abdomen distinction at all, with bristle bundles along the whole body, is an aquatic wormEPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET
- What argues against itThree pairs of segmented legs rules out every fly larvaWVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- What argues against itSize does not separate cranefly from midge or from aquatic worm; neither does habitat. Use the head and the tail endWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- Declared limitSources disagree about the head. Missouri says the larvae have a definite head; WVDEP says the head capsule is often reduced and barely visible, and a university key notes the sides of the thorax often have to be cut to see a retracted head. This record follows the second, and says so.MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13
- Declared limitSize brackets conflict substantially — 3 to 60 mm, 13 to 25 mm, 10 to 50 mm, 5 to over 50 mm, and under 5 to over 50 mm, three of those from one agency's own publications.WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE, WVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- Declared limitNo source consulted describes how cranefly larvae move, places them in the drift, or states that fish eat them. The angling picture of a cranefly larva tumbling helplessly down a riffle is supported by nothing consulted here. That is a real gap in a forage guide and is left visible rather than filled.MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, EPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET
- Size bandlarva: 3-60 mmWVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- Water typestreamrecord’s sources
- Water typeriverrecord’s sources
- Water typelake-marginrecord’s sources
- Water typespringrecord’s sources
- Water typereservoirrecord’s sources
- Life stagelarvarecord’s sources
- Where it sitson and in the substrate, where decaying vegetation and leaf debris collectMDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE, WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13
- Where it sitsa crawler and burrower, in habitats from lakes and wetlands to fast waterWVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO, WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- How it movesclassified as a crawler and burrower; no source consulted describes how it actually movesWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE, WVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO
- Sources disagreeHead visibility is a straight contradiction between two agencies, and it is the single character a beginner would reach for first.record’s sources
- Missouri Department of ConservationMDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE · State · read 2026-09-04
- Guide to Aquatic Invertebrates of the Upper Midwest (University of Minnesota Water Resources Center; hosted by West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection)WVDEP-DIPTERA-CH13 · University · read 2026-09-25
- West Virginia Department of Environmental ProtectionWVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO · State · read 2026-09-04
- West Virginia Department of Environmental ProtectionWVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE · State · read 2026-09-04
- West Virginia Department of Environmental ProtectionWVDEP-ADV-MACRO · State · read 2026-09-04
- U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyEPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET · National · read 2026-09-04
The pages themselves
All 224, and what each one is holding up.
- Missouri Department of Conservation
MDC-CRANEFLY-LARVAE
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-MACRO-TIPSHEET
- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
WVDEP-ADV-MACRO
- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
WVDEP-INVERT-GUIDE
- West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
WVDEP-VISUAL-MACRO
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