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3. Plecoptera ID

Collected in Cattaraugus CO. NY on May 17th from an intermittent spring seep flowing through a undisturbed, 400 acre stand of Allegheny hardwood. The stonefly nymphs were quite prolific, almost under every rock with a diameter larger than a CD. No adults to be found despite their apparent maturity.

The seep is also rich with caddis larva, several species of salamanders, crayfish and spotted newts higher up along the bank.

Appears to be family Perlidae .... is it just A. capitata with an interesting color variation??







Habitat...
where the seep upwells from the ground (looking downstream)






Salamander spices include...
Duskey Salamander ~ Desmognathus fuscus
Two Lined Salamander ~ Eurycea bislineata
Spotted Salamander ~ Ambystoma maculatum
(pictured) Four-toed Salamander ~ Hemidactylium scutatum




Crayfish


And my friend that foraged along with me in the seep just feet away...

Great pictures, Drew. Your latest stonefly specimens are interesting, as is the location in which they were collected. They are not A. capitata. I doubt that they are perlids. Did you keep specimens? If so, can you confirm that they lack branched thoracic gills in their "armpits?" If the branched gills are absent (as they appear to be), they are probably perlodids of the subfamily Perlodinae, the "springflies."

This looks to be the Perlodid stonefly, Malirekus iroquois.

Andrew,

I think your raccoon buddy is pissed you are nosing around in his honey-hole! Just the few samples you pulled from that little seep is the reason he's so fat, dumb, and happy.

It's incredible how much protein a little area like this will produce. That is why wet-lands are so important. Us guys on this site probably spend the majority of our time hipdeep in the middle of a good sized stream somewhere and overlook these little places. It all starts here!
In the headwaters.

I have been lucky to have stood in the middle of massive hatches or spinner falls that boggle the mind. The numbers are incredible. We sometimes get distracted from these other places. I spent a great deal of time as a youngster turning over rocks and logs myself around my grandparents farm in northern Michigan. Some of the kids of this generation unfortunately don't know what they are missing absorbed in their Gameboy world. That shit is dull!

Thanks for sharing your "stuff" with us.

Spence

I almost did a doctorate in aquatic entomology on the benthic macroinvertebrate communities of springs and their relationships to groundwater chemistry. These are absolutely fascinating little ecosystems with unexpected productivity and diversity, and in fact their own unique communities in many cases. And after a few of them run together they get big enough for brook trout and the like...I know a few places like this in northern lower MI and there are some very interesting insects in them too. Also, small rainwater-fed rivulets on the Oregon coast surprised me with their diversity as well - three to four families each of mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, true flies, aquatic beetles, true bugs, etc......

Jonathon