Plecoptera: Perlodidae of Gunnison County, ColoradoKogotus modestus - Sickle Springfly(Banks 1908)Updated 7 Oct 2009
.
HabitatStreams and rivers throughout the county.Local Research ResultsK. modestus nymphs have been popular research subjects in the upper Gunnison Basin. Common and easy to catch in the summer, these stoneflies are robust and relatively easy to handle and observe. Both the Peckarsky and Allan Labs at RMBL have worked with this species. The Stewart Lab based out of Texas has published life history data from a population near Pitkin. In fact there are so many papers published on Kogotus, please go to the references to admire them all.Locations CollectedCement Creek, East River, Hall´s Gulch, Hooper CreekNotesOlder publications may refer to this species as Perla modestus.Links
ReferencesAllan,J David 1982 Feeding habits and prey consumption of three setipalpian stoneflies (Plecoptera) in a mountain stream. Ecology 63(1), 26-34. AbstractAllan,JD; Flecker,AS; McClintock,NL 1987 Prey size selection by carnivorous stoneflies. Limnol. Oceanogr. 32(4), 864-872. Small stoneflies preyed on small prey and big stoneflies preferred medium sized prey. Percent attacks/encounter by small K. modestus were strongly biased towards small prey, large K. modestus were weakly biased towards large prey. Capture success was greater and handling times were shorter with small prey compared to large prey. To summarize, choice of prey size captured varied with predator size. Banks N. 1908 Neuropteroid insects - notes and descriptions. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 34:255-267. Described as Perla modesta.   
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 129: "This species is common in creeks and rivers. The adults emerge from April to August." Kondratieff,BC; Baumann,RW 2002 A review of the stoneflies of Colorado with description of a new species of Capnia (Plecoptera: Capniidae). Transactions of American Entomological Society 128 3, 385-401. Quote from page 397: "A common species found on the higher elevation small to medium sized streams of the Mountain region. Adults can be collected from July to October." Needham,JG; Claassen,PW 1925 A Monograph of the Plecoptera of North America. Entomological Society of America, Lafayette, Indiana. 397 pages. Discussed as Perla modesta on page 88. Peckarsky,BL 1980 Predator-prey interactions between stoneflies and mayflies: Behavioral observations. Ecology 61 4, 932-943. Peckarsky,BL 1983 Biotic interactions or abiotic limitations? A model of lotic community structure. In: Dynamics of Lotic Ecosystems. Eds: Fontaine III,Thomas D; Bartell,Steven M Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 303-323. Peckarsky,BL 1985 Do predaceous stoneflies and siltation affect the structure of stream insect communities colonizing enclosures? Canadian Journal of Zoology 63, 1519-1530. Peckarsky,BL 1987a Mayfly cerci as defense against stonefly predation: deflection and detection. Oikos 48 2, 161-170. Peckarsky,BL 1988 Why predaceous stoneflies do not aggregate with their prey. Internationale Vereinigung für Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie Verhandlungen 23, 2135-2140. Investigating optimal foraging theory, she found that contrary to theory K. modestus and Megarcys signata larvae did not hang out in high concentrations of prey. Peckarsky,BL 1991a A field test of resource depression by predatory stonefly larvae. Oikos 61 1, 3-10. Peckarsky,BL 1991b Is there a coevolutionary arms race between predators and prey? A case study with stoneflies and mayflies. Advances in Ecology 1, 167-180. Peckarsky,BL 1991c Mechanisms of intra- and interspecific interference between larval stoneflies. Oecologia 85(4) 521-529. Abstract Peckarsky,BL 1996 Alternative predator avoidance syndromes of stream-dwelling mayfly larvae. Ecology 77 6, 1888-1905. Abstract Peckarsky,BL; Cowan,CA 1991 Consequences of larval intraspecific competition to stonefly growth and fecundity. Oecologia 88, 277-288. Peckarsky,BL; Cowan,CA 1995 Microhabitat and activity periodicity of predatory stoneflies and their mayfly prey in a western Colorado stream. Oikos 74 3, 513-521. Peckarsky,BL; Cowan,CA; Penton,MA; Anderson,CR 1993 Sublethal consequences of stream-dwelling predatory stoneflies on mayfly growth and fecundity. Ecology 74 6, 1836-1846. Abstract Peckarsky,BL; Dodson,SI 1980 An experimental analysis of biological factors contributing to stream community structure. Ecology 61 6, 1283-1290. Ruse,LP; Herrmann,SJ 2000 Plecoptera and Trichoptera species distribution related to environmental characteristics of the metal-polluted Arkansas River, Colorado. Western North American Naturalist 60 1, 57-65. They looked at the Arkansas River above and below some notorious heavy metal mine pollution sources, California Gulch and the Leadville Drain. They found that adult Kogotus were eliminated by the Leadville Drain, recovered and reappeared a ways downstream, then were present below California Gulch at one site before disappearing for good. After freshwater was added to the Arkansas River from the western slope, Kogotus reappeared at one site. They were probably missing farther downstream due to warmer water temperatures and would have been missing from a clean river as well. Stanford,JA; Ward,JV 1989 Serial discontinuities in a Rocky Mountain river. I. Distribution and abundance of Plecoptera. Regulated Rivers: Research and Management 3, 169-175. Stewart, KW and Sandberg, JB 2003 The life history of a Colorado population of Kogotus modestus Research Update on Ephemeroptera and Plecoptera E. Gaino (Ed.) University of Perugia, Perugia Italy pp.195-200. PDF available on Sandberg's website They studied Kogotus in Hooper Creek and Halls Gulch near Pitkin. They observed a synchronized emergence of adults in late August and early September. They include scanning electron micrographs of K. modestus eggs and lacinia (a mouthpart). Looking at the gut contents of 30 larvae, they found that K. modestus ate almost entirely Chironomid larvae. The males stopped feeding before emerging, while the females kept eating. They tested the eggs for diapause and found that the eggs diapause through at least the first winter and hatch in the spring, while other eggs diapaused longer and hatched the following spring. Vance,SA; Peckarsky,BL 1997 The effect of mermithid parasitism on predation of nymphal Baetis bicaudatus (Ephemeroptera) by invertebrates. Oecologia 110, 147-152. They found that Kogotus modestus ate significantly more parasitized than unparasitized B. bicaudatus. However, Rhyacophila hyalinata caught and ate equal numbers of parasitized and unparasitized nymphs. They attribute this to the behavior of parasitized nymphs and different hunting behaviors of the predators. Parasitized nymphs drifted less, which increased encounter rates with Kogotus nymphs. However R. hyalinata larvae are ambush predators and catch parasitized and unparasitized nymphs equally. They hypothesize that avoiding fish predation by drifting less is a greater advantage to the parasite than the losses suffered by increased stonefly predation.
|
