Plecoptera: Capniidae of Gunnison County, ColoradoIntroduction to the Capniidae
Winter Stoneflies, Slender Winter Stonefly, Small Winter Stoneflies
Updated 25 July 2009
Provisional Species List
Capnia coloradensis
Capnia confusa
Capnia gracilaria
Capnia nana
Capnia vernalis
Eucapnopsis brevicauda
Isocapnia crinita
Isocapnia grandis
Utacapnia logana
Utacapnia poda
Field Notes
2007 - In the upper East River Valley near Gothic, adults were seen in large numbers on the snow on the 18th of April.
Local Research Results
Colorado has 21 species in the winter stonefly family Capniidae. Ten species have been found in the Gunnison Basin so far (Kondratieff and Baumann 2002).
Links
On this website:
Capnia Introduction
Other Websites:
Adult Capniidae Key - Aquatic Insects of Michigan by Ethan Bright http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/~ethanbr/aim/Keys/Plecoptera/id_pom_capniidae.html
Capniidae from the Tree of Life Web project
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Capniidae&contgroup=Plecoptera
References
Baumann,RW; Gaufin,AR; Surdick,RF 1977 The stoneflies (Plecoptera) of the Rocky Mountains. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 31, 1-208.
Quote from page 56: "The members of this family are small, black stoneflies, mostly less than 12 millimeters in length, whose wings lie flat when at rest. Reduction in wing length is quite common, especially in the males with brachypterous, micropterous and apterous species represented.
Capniidae can be separated in the adult stage from the other families in the Nemouroideae by the presence of long many segmented cerci.
Most species emerge in the winter or early spring which is why they are called the "winter stoneflies." The emerging adults can be extremely abundant in February and they are often found crawling over the snow or on bridge abutments in profusion. "
Harper,PP; Lauzon,M; Harper,F 1991 Life cycles of 12 species of winter stoneflies from Quebec (Plecoptera, Capniidae and Taeniopterygidae). Canadian Journal of Zoology 69 3, 787-796.
Jacobi,GZ; Cary,SJ 1996 Winter stoneflies (Plecoptera) in seasonal habitats in New Mexico, USA. Journal of the North American Benthological Society (15) 4, 690-699. Abstract
Kondratieff and Baumann 2002 A review of the stoneflies of Colorado with description of a new species of Capnia (Plecoptera: Capniidae) Transactions of the North American Entomological Society. 128(4)385-401.
Nelson,RC; Baumann,RW 1989 Systematics and distribution of the winter stonefly genus Capnia (Plecoptera: Capniidae) in North America. Great Basin Naturalist 49, 289-363.
Nelson,RC; Kondratieff,BC 1988 A new species of Capnia (Plecoptera: Capniidae) from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Entomological News 99 2, 77-80.
Short,RA; Ward,JV 1981 Trophic ecology of three winter stoneflies (Plecoptera). American Midland Naturalist 105, 341-347.
Brown, Wendy S. 2004 Plecoptera or Stoneflies of Gunnison County, Colorado
www.gunnisoninsects.org
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