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Last modified: 2/13/2015 12:54:07 AM
Late Wednesday evening in the ecology lab of St. Paul’s School in Concord, more than a dozen people hovered over microscopes, excitedly sharing their discoveries with one another – caddisfly nymphs, hellgrammites, water mites – creatures that many of us simply call bugs. The group was participating in Bug Nights, a winter program where volunteers receive training and help sort through samples gathered from the Merrimack River Watershed. The generated data is then used to help evaluate the water quality of the rivers as part of the Upper Merrimack Monitoring Program. For more information, go to merrimackriver.org.
Above: Gary Lynn of Bow sorts through his sample. Below left: Sampling supervisor Steve Landry displays a hellgrammite, the aquatic larva of a dobsonfly, in his pocket. Below right: Theo Groh of Manchester (left) invites Landry (second from left) to look at a potential specimen.