**Stonefly Species Malenka tina (Tiny Winter Black)**

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Taxonomic Navigation -?-

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

» Class Insecta (Insects)

» Order Plecoptera (Stoneflies)

» Family Nemouridae (Forestflies)

» Genus Malenka (Tiny Winter Blacks)

» Species tina (Tiny Winter Black)

Common Name

Match	Common Name
	Tiny Winter Black

Pictures Below ↓

Pictures of 1 Stonefly Specimen in the Species Malenka tina:

Male Malenka tina (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Adult

View 7 PicturesThis is the smallest stonefly I've ever collected, with a body only 5.5 mm long.

Although not in-focus in my pictures, its first tarsal segment is similar in length to the third, while the second is much shorter. This helps with family-level identification.

Examining this specimen under a microscope shows a membranous lobe on the dorsal (Dorsal: Top.) base of the cerci (Cercus: The left and right "tails" of an insect are known as the cerci or caudal cerci. The middle tail of a three-tailed insect is not.), which is the key characteristic in Merritt & Cummins (4th ed.) to place the genus definitively as Malenka.

Following the species key in Jewett Jr's Stoneflies of the Pacific Northwest, the species appears to be Malenka tina. My dissecting microscope seems to show sternite (

One sternite of this Isonychia bicolor mayfly spinner is highlighted in red.

Sternite: The bottom (ventral) part of a single segment on an insect's abdomen.) 9 ending in a rounded knob, which distinguishes it from Malenka bifurcata, but the detail is hard to work out.

Also worth noting is that Montana appears to have this species, whereas birfucata is not know there: http://fieldguide.mt.gov/displaySpecies.aspx?family=Nemouridae

Collected July 1, 2019 from the Madison River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on July 18, 2019

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Stonefly Species Malenka tina (Tiny Winter Black)

Pictures of 1 Stonefly Specimen in the Species Malenka tina:

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**Stonefly Species Malenka tina (Tiny Winter Black)**