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Artistic view of a Male Pteronarcys californica (Pteronarcyidae) (Giant Salmonfly) Stonefly Adult from the Gallatin River in Montana
Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica

The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.

27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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By Troutnut on November 20th, 2015, 12:52 am EST
I was recently asked about good reading on the topic of aquatic insects in Alaska. I did some recent searches on this topic for work, and here's what I've found (thanks to Luke Jacobus for pointing me to more than a few of these).

The most recent species-specific source on mayflies is:

Randolph RP, McCafferty WP (2005) The mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of Alaska, including a new species of Heptageniidae. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 107, 190–199.

A comprehensive source to family-level distribution and abundance is:

Oswood MW (1989) Community structure of benthic invertebrates in interior Alaskan (USA) streams and rivers. (ed) High Latitude Limnology. Springer, pp 97–110

And here's a mixed bag of other papers including some interesting biology related to Alaska's cold climate:

Rinella DJ, Bogan DL, Shaftel RS, Merrigan D (2012) New aquatic insect (Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Plecoptera) records for Alaska, U.S.A.: range extensions and a comment on under-sampled habitats. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 88, 407–412.


Walters KR, Sformo T, Barnes BM, Duman JG (2009) Freeze tolerance in an arctic Alaska stonefly. J Exp Biol 212, 305–312.


Irons III JG, Miller LK, Oswood MW (1993) Ecological adaptations of aquatic macroinvertebrates to overwintering in interior Alaska (USA) subarctic streams. Canadian Journal of Zoology 71, 98–108.


Irons III JG (1988) Life history patterns and trophic ecology of Trichoptera in two Alaskan (USA) subarctic streams. Canadian journal of zoology 66, 1258–1265.


Cowan CA, Oswood MW, Buttimore CA, Flanagan PW (1983) Processing and macroinvertebrate colonization of detritus in an Alaskan subarctic stream. Ecography 6, 340–348.


As for fishable hatches, the only hatch anybody's likely to have to match here in interior Alaska is Drunella doddsii. I've also encountered grayling feeding ravenously on a species of Cinygmula that I think might be Cinygmula ramaleyi, but that's yet to be confirmed by entomologists and would represent a new record in this state if it's the case. Ephemerella aurivillii is another of the common mayflies around here, along with various unidentified (at least by me) members of Baetidae, Siphlonuridae, and Epeorus. But I haven't personally seen any of those in fishable numbers.

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Taxon
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Plano, TX

Posts: 1311
Taxon on Nov 20, 2015November 20th, 2015, 5:23 am EST
Jason-

To your list I would add:

*30: A New Genus And New Species of Baetidae from lakes and reservoirs in eastern North America by Hill, Pfeiffer, & Jacobus

*32: Phylogenetic Systematics of the Potamanthidae (Ephemeropters) by Y. J. Bae and W. P. McCafferty
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Nov 20, 2015November 20th, 2015, 6:12 am EST
Jason,

You might consider adding:

Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of the Yukon by P.P. Harper and Francoise Harper.

http://www.ephemeroptera-galactica.com/pubs/pub_h/pubharperp1997p151.pdf

Mark
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
Creno
Grants Pass, OR

Posts: 302
Creno on Nov 20, 2015November 20th, 2015, 8:52 am EST
The above seems a little mayfly centric :-) While I know there is alot more a quick search gave me this:



Banks, Nathan. 1900. Papers from the Harriman Alaska Expedition. X. Entomological results (4): neuropteroid insects. Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Science 2: 465-476. Download PDF (911 Kb)

Banks, Nathan. 1923. A biological survey of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. 2. Insects, arachnids, and chilopods. Trichoptera. North American Fauna, Washington 46: 146.

Chuluunbat, Suvdtsetseg, Morse, John C., Lessard, JoAnna L., Benbow, M. Eric, Wesener, Matthew D., Hudson, John. 2010. Evolution of terrestrial habitat in Manophylax species (Trichoptera: Apataniidae), with a new species from Alaska. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 29: 413-430.

Ellis, Robert J. 1978. Seasonal abundance and distribution of adult caddisflies of Sashin Creek, Baranof Island, Southeastern Alaska (Trichoptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 54: 199-206.

Flint, O.S., Jr. 1976. Book Review. [The Odonata of Canada and Alaska, volume III]. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America 22: 392-393.

Holmquist, C. 1975. Lakes of northern Alaska and northwestern Canada and their invertebrate fauna. Zoologisches Jahrbuch Systematik 102: 373-484.

Irons, J. G., III. 1988. Life history patterns and trophic ecology of Trichoptera in two Alaskan (U.S.A.) subarctic streams. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66: 1258-1265.

Lessard, J.L., Merritt, R.W., Cummins, K.W. 2003. Spring growth of caddisflies (Limnephilidae: Trichoptera) in response to marine-derived nutrients and food type in a southeast Alaskan stream. Annales de Limnologie 39: 3-14.

Muttkowski, Richard A. 1915. Description of a Trichopterous larva from the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society Milwaukee 13: 42-45.

Nimmo, A.P. 1986. Preliminary annotated checklist of the Trichoptera (Insecta) of Alaska. Contributions to Natural Science : 1-8.

Northington, Robert M., Keyse, Matthew D., Beaty, Steven R., Whalen, Stephen C., Sokol, Eric R., Hershey, Anne E. 2010. Benthic secondary production in eight oligotrophic arctic Alaskan lakes. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 29: 465-479.

Rinella, Daniel J., Bogan, Daniel L. 2008. Significant westward range extension for the limnephilid caddisfly Phanocelia canadensis (Trichoptera): first record from Alaska, U.S.A. Entomological News 119: 295-297.

Rinella, D. J., Bogan, D. L., Shaftel, R. S., Merrigan, D. 2012. New aquatic insect (Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, and Plecoptera) records for Alaska, USA: range extensions and a comment on under-sampled habitats. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 88: 407-412.

Vineyard, R.N. 1982. An annotated checklist of the caddisflies (Trichoptera) of SE Alaska. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 79: 71-75.

Williams, N.E. 1991. Interactions between northern environments and caddisflies - as indicated by southern Alaskan fossils from the last 150,000 years (abstract). Pages 155 in Tomaszewski, C. (ed.) Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Trichoptera. Poznan, Poland, Adam Mickiewicz University Press.
Troutnut
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Bellevue, WA

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Troutnut on Nov 20, 2015November 20th, 2015, 12:57 pm EST
Thanks everyone! Fantastic additions.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut
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Troutnut on Jan 29, 2016January 29th, 2016, 1:54 pm EST
Another possible addition I just stumbled across:

Stewart KW, Oswood MW. (2006) The stoneflies (Plecoptera) of Alaska and western Canada. The Caddis Press, Columbus, Ohio, 325 pp.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut
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Troutnut on Feb 18, 2016February 18th, 2016, 10:14 am EST
Bob Newell suggested some additions to me by email:

1. Northernmost discovery of Bathynellacea (Syncarida:Bathynellidae) with description of a new species of Pacificabathynella from Alaska (USA). by A.I. Camacho, R. Newell, Z. Crete et al., J. of Natural History 23 Sept. 2015.

2. Preliminary survey of the aquatic midge larvae diversity (Diptera: Chironomidae) in Yukon River tributaries, Alaska. B. Hayford, R. Newell, and Z. Crete, Western North American Naturalist
.
3. The ecology of parafluvial ponds on a salmon River (Alaska). MS Thesis, U. of Montana, Z. Crete 2012.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Creno
Grants Pass, OR

Posts: 302
Creno on Feb 18, 2016February 18th, 2016, 12:49 pm EST
Jason - do you have a date for the Hayford et al paper? Thanks
Troutnut
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Troutnut on Feb 18, 2016February 18th, 2016, 6:36 pm EST
Creno: Nope, but I did a Google Scholar search and found this:

Hayford, B. L., Newell, R. L., & Crete, Z. J. (2014). Survey of Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) from the Kuskokwim River watershed in western Alaska. Western North American Naturalist, 74(2), 208-215.

(PDF available on Google Scholar without a paywall, by the way.)

I wonder if that's what he meant?
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist

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