Entomology in Chile

Southern Chile showcases Mother Nature at her finest, and sometimes her most bizarre. In the course of a fishing trip at Chile West, we find a multitude of insect life on the river.

Aquatic insects such as stoneflies, caddisflies, damselflies, dragonflies, craneflies, mayflies and midges make up the majority here. Then you add the terrestrials. We’ve got beetles, bees, flies, butterflies, moths, spiders and grasshoppers, just to name a few.

Some of the insects we come across are unlike anything you have ever seen in your life! There are bugs with horns, pinchers, vivid psychedelic colors, super long antennae and grappling hook-like legs. We’ve got everything from something that looks like a crab/spider hybrid with grasshopper legs, to giant orange bumble bees. Is there some mad scientist out there, cross-breeding anything and everything?

You might get the impression that an angler needs to wear full body armor to keep from getting bitten. On the contrary, there are few biting insects and the peskiest of all, the mosquito, we rarely see.

No bug dope necessary!