Aquatic insects of Alaska

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

By Troutnut on November 20th, 2015, 5:52 am

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 (Life history: The detailed life cycle of an organism, including the stages it passes through and characteristic behavior relating to growth and reproduction.) 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 (Detritus: Small, loose pieces of decaying organic matter underwater.) 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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Most recent comments on this post (latest on top)

Troutnut	February 18th, 2016, 11:36 pm
Administrator Bellevue, WA Posts: 2737	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

Creno	February 18th, 2016, 5:49 pm
Grants Pass, OR Posts: 305	Jason - do you have a date for the Hayford et al paper? Thanks

Troutnut	February 18th, 2016, 3:14 pm
Administrator Bellevue, WA Posts: 2737	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

Troutnut	January 29th, 2016, 6:54 pm
Administrator Bellevue, WA Posts: 2737	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	November 20th, 2015, 5:57 pm
Administrator Bellevue, WA Posts: 2737	Thanks everyone! Fantastic additions.
	Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D. Troutnut and salmonid ecologist

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Aquatic insects of Alaska

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