Journal archives for May 2017

May 7, 2017

A New Yard Order

It's been cold and cloudy today, so I didn't get out much. But every once in a while I wandered around the yard a bit, and on one of my wanderings I saw an insect on the wall of the garage from an order that I've not yet seen in my yard. It was a stonefly (order Plecoptera).

Stoneflies are cool insects. They spend most of their lives as aquatic larvae, living on the bottom of fast-moving streams. They tend not to tolerate streams with poor water quality. Since adults don't live long or fly far after emerging, it makes me wonder where my stonefly spent its youth. The closest stream to my house (Paradise Creek) is at least a kilometer away and it is not known for its great water quality.

The little guy/gal (?) (body length 10 mm, 13 mm from head to wing tip) was easy to catch in a vial. It didn't try to fly away and wasn't bothered by cold weather. It was about 5 degrees C when I captured it in a vial, and it only took a few minutes for it to revive after being stored in the freezer for a couple hours. After taking some pictures I let it go look for someone to mate with.

I'm not sure yet, but I think it's a winter stonefly (famliy Taeniopterygidae), maybe in the genus Strophopteryx. I've submitted it to BugGuide to find out.

Posted on May 7, 2017 01:40 AM by swells swells | 1 observation | 0 comments | Leave a comment