About "Mystery Creeks": I love small streams, but some of my favorite little trout streams are too small and too fragile to publicize here. If you recognize one of these, you already understand why I'm keeping it a secret. These are the kinds of places that lose a little bit of their charm if you see someone else's week-old footprint, and I don't want to do that to them.Closeup insects from Mystery Creek # 199
Suwallia pallidula (Sallfly) Stonefly Nymph
View 6 PicturesThis specimen keys out to Suwallia, for which I did not find any nymph species keys. However, I'm placing it in Suwallia pallidula because I caught a few adults in the same spot that closely resembled the abundant nymphs and keyed them out to species. Features I noted under the microscope when keying this specimen to genus included apical (Apical: Close to the apex; tip or end.) hairs of cercal segments that were directed at posterior (Posterior: Toward the back of an organism's body. The phrase "posterior to" means "in back of.") angles, and the longest apical (Apical: Close to the apex; tip or end.) hairs of distal (Distal: Far from the point of attachment or origin; near the tip.) segments were shorter than their following segment. Female Ameletus (Brown Duns) Mayfly Spinner
View 13 PicturesI found this female already spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) and nearly dead, laying in the surface film of a very tiny spring seep (inch-deep water) in the valley of a very small trout stream.
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