Need a little help identifying these

[Rob G]

Can someone please tell me what is going on here? I took this photo when I was on a bike tour down in southern Illinois several weeks ago. This small stream would eventually dump into the Ohio River but that was probably at least 15 or more miles away. Just curious if these net like structures that seemed to be attached to a foam ring in order to make them float were associated with a conservation study or are they minnow seines or what else? Just curious. As always, thanks for your input.

 

[Mike G]

It's a frog campground. They're tents.

[tjtroester]

Frog tents! Why, i've heard it but I never thought i would see it! timothy

[Rob G]

I thought this was a frog tent but then again maybe those amphibians do get up in the nets, can sit on the foam and not be carried off by all the blue herons?

 

[Ryan Kral]

Im pretty sure its a sailboat race, almost positive. Ryan

[John Gillio]

Tent worms vacationing on the lake?

[Rob G]

"Tent worms" Oh come on now, if you guys don't know what these really are, surely you can come up with something better than this

[jhoekstra]

To me, they look like aquatic insect emergence traps.

 

Aquatic insects emerge and fly up toward the light. They are captured in a mesh bag at the top. I set these out for some of my studies on stoneflies. It's a very effective way to get freshly emerged specimens, and you can also estimate the rate at which bugs are coming off because you're sampling a defined area.

 

Maybe AC has it right, but then I don't see why you'd have the tent-shaped structure up top. The exact trap design isn't familiar to me so I could very well be wrong. But the way they are laid out makes me suspect aquatic ecologists are at work. Somebody trapping minnows wouldn't be so fussy about the spacing.

[John Gillio]

I google imaged aquatic insect traps. I think John has the answer.

[Rob G]

To me, they look like aquatic insect emergence traps.

 

 

Ding Ding Ding, we have a Winner !

 

I looked it up and yes that's what they seem to be and in fact after a little research I found that Southern IL Univ. has some studies going on within the Cashe River system down in that area.

 

Tent worms........ Ha

 

Thanks for playing, glad we now have that solved as it's been BUGGING me ever since.

[Fredmo]

You have to give AC half credit, she gave what seemed to be a serious answer, with a straight face. Sounded good.

[Mike G]

You have to give AC half credit, she gave what seemed to be a serious answer, with a straight face. Sounded good.

Yah. I was hoping it was Hoffa too. Getting tired of all the false leads on where he is.