Annual summary for 2012: the directions we'll take in 2013

(Above: the common stonefly, Agnetina annulipes, one of the new taxon discovered this year.)

This is a summary of where things stand with this blog at the end of two years, and some thoughts on current and future directions.

I. Statistics

I've been surprised with the interest shown in this blog, but pleased to know there are so many people who share my fascination with aquatic insects.  The number of page views at the moment -- after two years of posting -- stands at 54, 124.  The blog has been viewed from people from 128 different countries; as you might expect, the largest number of viewers is from the U.S.  The top five countries are:

1. United States: 34,958
2. Canada: 2427
3. United Kingdom: 1635
4. Russia: 1260
5. Romania: 814

The highest number of page views for a single month came in May: 3859.

II. What's been accomplished?

At the end of last year, some of you may recall, I thought about giving this up and moving on to something new.  Frankly, I was pretty sure that I had found all of the species I was going to find in our local streams -- that I'd have nothing new to say in future blog entries.  I could not have been more wrong.  By my count, I've found about 30 new insects this year, things I had not seen before, or things -- like common netspinners -- that I had never identified to the level of species.  Here's my list.  (Reminder: "new" simply means "new to my collection.")

Mayflies (Ephemeroptera)

A. Small minnow mayflies

1. Baetis tricaudatus (new)
2. Heterocloeon petersi (new)
3. Iswaeon anoka (new)
4. Plauditus dubius (new)

B. Flatheaded mayflies

1. Maccaffertium merririvulanum (new)
2. Cinygmula subaequalis (new)

C. Spiny crawler mayflies

1. Drunella cornutella (new)
2. Ephemerella invaria (newly identified)
3. Teloganopsis deficiens (new)

D. Other mayflies

1. pronggilled mayfly, new genus: Leptophlebia
2. common burrower mayfly: Ephemera guttalata (new)

Stoneflies (Plecoptera)

1. new small winter stonefly: Paracapnia angulata
2. new genus of green stonefly: Alloperla
3. new genus of green stonefly: Haploperla
4. new common stonefly: Agnetina annulipes
5. new common stonefly: Paragnetina media (Pennsylvania)
6. new Perlodid stonefly: Isoperla dicala
7. new Perlodid stonefly: Malirekus hastatus
8. giant stonefly species, now identified: Pteronarcys proteus

Caddisflies (Trichoptera)

A. Common netspinners, now identified to the level of species

1. Ceratopsyche alhedra
2. Ceratopsyche bronta
3. Ceratopsyche morosa
4. Ceratopsyche slossonae
5. Ceratopsyche sparna
6. Hydropsyche betteni
7. Hydropsyche rossi
8. Hydropsyche venularis

B. Other caddisflies

1. freeliving caddisfly: Rhyacophila carolina (now identified to species)
2. freeliving caddisfly: Rhyacophila nigrita (new)
3. freeliving caddisfly: Rhyacophila glaberrima (new)
4. northern case-maker: Pycnopsyche gentilis (now identified to species)
5. northern case-maker: Pycnopsyche scabripennis (now identified to species)
6. Apatania incerta: (new species in a new family of case-makers, Apataniidae)


III. Current and future directions

When I started this blog at the end of 2010, my intention was simply to report on my weekly stream visits, noting which insects I found in which streams at certain times of the year.  I also posted entries on the different families of aquatic macroinvertebrates that we encounter in our streams in central Virginia, noting the different genera, where I could make those distinctions, and adding microscope photos for those families and those genera.  My interests at the moment are these:

1. to find and identify to the level of genus -- and where I can to the level of species -- all of the different mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies (nymphs and larvae) that live in our streams in this part of Virginia.  I.e. I want to make our "EPT Species List for Central Virginia" as complete as I can.

2. to continually work on my photography, getting better and sharper photos of these beautiful larvae and nymphs.

3. to continue with "stream reports," adding more and more new streams to the list of places that I explore.  I have no doubt that some of our remote mountain streams contain new taxa to add to our list.

4. to carefully identify all new taxa in blog entries, using microscope photos of important morphological features.

and

5. to increasingly work on species level ID for those taxa that, in the past, I have only identified to the level of genus.  I was able to do that with a lot of common netspinners this summer, and at the moment I'm keen on doing it with our genus Neophylax Uenoids.

I appreciate the comments and support that I get from readers, and I hope that readers, like myself, are enjoying learning -- in detail -- about something new.
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(Below: the spiny crawler mayfly, Teloganopsis deficiens, another of the new taxa discovered this year.)

It was something about the gills: Pronggilled Mayflies -- a new genus, Leptophlebia

This entry was going to be "The Day of the Caddis" -- until I got home and realized that the pronggilled mayfly I had found at the Upper Doyles River was, for me, a new genus: Leptophlebia.  I took a lot of photos of this little nymph because the gills looked a little bit odd.  And they were.

You'll recall that almost all of the pronggilled mayflies we see are genus Paraleptophlebia.  This is one that I found at South River on 12/12.

Note that the all of the gills look the same.  Let me quote Beaty ("The Trichoptera of North Carolina," p. 40): "gill 1 similar to remaining gills in structure (usually forked with lateral tracheal branches conspicuous)."  The "forked" gills -- even the tracheation in each gill before we get to the fork -- is very clear in this photo.

Now take a close look at the gills on our nymph found this morning.

The gill on segment is small and forked: the rest are not.  The gills on segments 2-7 are "bilamellate" -- each has two thin, tracheated plates that end in a slender filament.  From Peckarsky (Freshwater Macroinvertebrates, p. 33):  Gills on segment 1 forked; remaining gills bilamellate....Leptophlebia."  In this microscope view of our nymph, you can see the simple fork on gill 1: all the rest "split" -- as it were -- into two plates which narrow down to filaments at the end.

And if we tear off one of those bilamellate gills, we see one of these.

Very cool!  I love finding new things.  Beaty lists 5 species of Leptophlebia in North Carolina.  I'll see what I can do with species ID later on, though he cautions to ID at the level of "genus".

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The rest, for me, is anti-climactic, but I did find some very nice insects and got some pretty good photos.  So, off we go.

1. The flatheaded mayfly, Maccaffertium vicarium.  This species is fairly intolerant (1.5), and I've found it at this site before.  Note the dark banding on the posterior edges of the tergites and sternites.

2. Uenoid caddisfly larvae -- the rocks were covered with them.  I did not see Apataniidae at this site.  I took dorsal and ventral photos of two of the many I saw.

3. Lepidostomatid case-making larvae -- there were also a whole lot of these.  If you look closely, you can see the eyes in some of these photos.  The last photo is of a very small case that I thought was empty.  But it wasn't: you can see the little head popping out!

4. A Perlodid stonefly, Diploperla duplicata.

5. A Chloroperlid stonefly, genus Sweltsa.  Note the "hairy" wing pads, one of the traits of a Sweltsa nymph.

6. And a large winter stonefly, Taeniopteryx burksi/maura.  In the second photo you can clearly see why the coxal gills are described as "telescoping."

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A final photo showing that tiny Lepidostomatid next to our pronggilled mayfly, genus Leptophlebia.

Note:   Leptophlebia has been added to the EPT lists of 9/8 and 10/1.

Spring Comes Early to the Doyles River: The Small Minnow Mayfly, Heterocloeon amplum -- even a Spiny Crawler

Spring insects already?  Yes indeed.  I not only found several H. amplum small minnow mayflies at the Doyles River this morning, I also found this little beauty --

a spiny crawler mayfly, genus Ephemerella (probably E. invaria)!  H. amplum is one of three small minnow mayflies that we typically see in the winter and early spring.  We're more likely to see it in January through March -- but it's only December.  Still, these insects were tiny (H. amplum nymph, 5 mm; E. invaria nymph, 2.5 mm): the wing pads are hardly visible at this stage of the game.   On February the 6th of this year, I found this H. amplum nymph and this E. invaria nymph at this very same spot in the Doyles.

They grow up in a hurry!  We'll be seeing a lot more of both of these nymphs in the months ahead, but it's always neat to find the first of the season.

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But it is still winter, and winter insects were plentiful in my findings this morning.  Lots of small winter stoneflies and lots of Perlodid stoneflies, Clioperla clio (the "killer"!).   And, again, as I did two weeks ago, I found Glossosomatids (saddle-case makers), Uenoids (genus Neophylax), and Apataniids (genus Apatania) -- a real mix of caddisfly larvae.  I left the Glossosomatids alone, but I did take some photos of the Uenoids and Apataniids, photos that help us distinguish the two.

Uenoidae:

Apataniidae:

And, Unenoid and Apataniid side-by-side:

Since these families are found at the same time of year and make similar cases and can be found attached to the very same rocks, I'm not surprised that, in the past, I've thought all of these larvae were Uenoidae in family terms.  As you'll recall, it was not until 12 days ago (12/9) that I realized that some of the Uenoids I find every year are actually Apataniids!  You might also recall that the shape of the case is one thing that can help us distinguish the two: Uenoid cases tend to be rectangular, tube-shaped, Apataniid cases are tapered, "cornucopia" shaped.  (See Steven Beaty, "The Trichoptera of North Carolina," p. 85.)  But remember, we can only be sure of the family ID by looking at the meso and metanota.

Uenoidae:

The anterior, front edge, of the mesonotum is "emarginated," and while sclerites are lacking in the sa 1 position, there are two visible setae.

Apataniidae:

The leading edge of the mesonotum is not emarginated -- it's straight across -- and in place of the sa 1 sclerites on the metanotum, there is a transverse band formed by about 20 setae.

If you're out sampling streams and doing family level ID, be on the look out for both of these insects. But exact identification does require microscope work: these larvae do not abandon their cases until they're preserved.

Next on the agenda -- a check-up on those Strophopteryx large winter stoneflies.
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Apataniidae larva; Apatania incerta.

And a spiny crawler and small minnow mayfly also found this morning, even smaller than those pictured above: 2 mm and 3.5 mm respectively.

Returning to the small streams in Sugar Hollow

It was sunny when I headed to Sugar Hollow this morning, but the clouds moved in in a hurry.  So, I can't say much about the quality of the photos you'll find in this entry.  Sun is a must for this kind of photography.  I also knew that the water was sure to be low.  It was, but I still saw a lot of insects: they were mostly in the leaf packs, but I saw a fair number of flatheaded mayflies on the bottoms of rocks.

In the photo above, the flatheaded mayfly, Maccaffertium merririvulanum.  I have still not seen this in any stream save for the small mountain streams that empty into the Moormans.  But these are the streams where ought to find them.  With a tolerance value of 0.5, this is the least tolerant flathead we find in our part of the country.

I've already gone into detail on this species in an entry posted on 1/17/12: I hope you'll have another look at that posting.  This is a flatheaded species that was first identified in 1978 in an article authored by Frank Louis Carle and Philip A. Lewis.  They note the pattern that is visible on the abdominal terga -- the pale "V"'s on segments 7-9.  They also note that the cerci (tails) are exceptionally long.  That's pretty clear.

But what's important for us is that this is a species that is only found in very small, very clean, spring-fed streams.  They even note that "The species has been collected from small pristine streams in the Appalachian Mountains."  And that's where I was this morning.   And as I noted on 1/17/12, M. merririvulanum is often found along with M. pudicum flatheads -- I also saw several of those nymphs  this morning.

The insect of the day?  The Giant stonefly, Pteronarcys proteus.  I didn't take any photos since I've posted so many photos of this one before.   I see more Giant stoneflies in the stream that I went to today than any other stream that I visit.  Some, at this time of year, are very big, but there are a lot of small ones as well.  P. proteus is an unusual Giant, having a growth period of 3-4 years (it's merovoltine).  (See Steven Beaty, "The Plecoptera of North Carolina," p. 28.)  So, it should not surprise us to see so many different sized nymphs throughout the year.
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Other photos today:

1. A fair sized Perlodid stonefly, Malirekus hastatus.  This is a species that needs to grow into its head -- so to speak!  The head seems quite large in proportion to the rest of the body, but that changes when the nymphs are mature.  Note that the posterior edges of the wing pads have just started to curl.

2. A small Perlodid stonefly, Diploperla duplicata.  Here too, not much sign of a change in the wing pads.

But this is what those wing pads eventually look like.

3. Large winter stoneflies, Taenionema atlanticum, also a taxon we find only in this kind of stream.  They're growing, and they're plentiful.

4. A small winter stonefly, genus Allocapnia, possibly Allocapnia mystica.  It's a male: note the long "supra-anal lobe."

5. A Roach-like stonefly, genus Tallaperla.  These too are starting to grow and mature.  This one measured close to 10 mm.

6. And a Uenoid caddisfly larva, genus Neophylax.  I only saw two or three Uenoid cases this morning -- but that will change as the winter goes on.  I'm still hesitant to make a call on the species.  But, I have found a book that should help with this project: R.N. Vineyard, ed., The Caddisfly Genus Neophylax (Trichoptera: Uenoidae) (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 2005).  A beautiful case.

I was surprised not to see any Chloroperlids (Green stoneflies), and I'm still not seeing the small minnow mayfly, Baetis tricaudatus.  Soon, I hope.