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A Community-Based Natural Resources Volunteer Program

Virginia Master Naturalists are volunteer educators, citizen scientists, and stewards helping Virginia conserve and manage natural resources and public lands.

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Aquatic Invertebrate Art Show

11/6/2019

 
Painting of stonefly larva, brown and yellow
Stonefly (Acroneuria sp.) by Rachel Caro, VMN-Holston Rivers Chapter
Each year, the VMN program creates a special recertification pin to recognize those volunteers who have completed another 40 hours of service and 8 hours of continuing education during the year.  Each pin highlights a different Virginia native species, and the artwork has been almost entirely by VMN volunteers.  

For our 2019 recertification pin, we decided to invite all VMN volunteers to submit photos and artwork representing aquatic invertebrates.  Nearly all of our VMN chapters are engaged in monitoring the quality of local streams, often using biological monitoring methods.  These methods involve seining and searching for aquatic invertebrates, which are then identified and classified by their tolerance to pollution.  Healthy streams will have a diversity of pollution intolerant animals, such as stoneflies and caddisflies.  If streams receive a lot of sediment or other pollutants from runoff, they become poor habitat for these species.  

We had nearly 30 different entries, all of which showed the passion and talent of our VMN volunteers.  We asked three experts in aquatic ecology and invertebrates to choose the artwork they felt would be the best fit for our pin.  

We are excited to not only share the winning artwork (featured above) by Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer Rachel Caro in our Holston Rivers Chapter , but also all of the submissions (below).  We think this collection is such an amazing and diverse representation of these important creatures.

Click on any image in the gallery to enlarge it and to see the name of the artist.
Mayfly nymph, brown and white with feathery gills
yellow caddisfly larva in case of multicolored stones
yellow caddisfly larva in case of multicolored stones
yellow caddisfly larva in case of multicolored stones
brown caddisfly larva in case made of shiny blue and purple pebbles
caddisfly larva in case made of colorful pebbles
caddisfly larva in case made of colorful pebbles
green caddisfly larva
crayfish with gold, brown, and rosy coloration
red-colored crayfish
blue-colored crayfish
image of damselfly head and thorax as seen through microscope
flathead mayfly, red and brown
Snail shell
hellgrammite, black-and-white drawing
net-spinning caddisfly, brown head and thorax with green abdoment and blue gills
Golden-brown snail in shell
Amphipod drawing, orange and red on blue background
Detailed stonefly picture, brown-and-yellow
brown-and-yellow stonefly
brown-and-yellow stonefly with feathery yellow gills
Caddisfly larva and crustacean larva
Caddisfly larva in case made of multicolored pebbles
Caddisfly larva in case made of multicolored pebbles
Dobsonfly larva and snail shell
Dragonfly larva and mayfly larva
water penny from three angles: ventral side, dorsal side, and from the side
Nettie Hebert
11/12/2019 07:26:07 am

Lovely work. Such talent out there!

Ken Cranston link
1/8/2020 05:30:06 pm

wonderful invertebrate art.


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