While birding along the Great Miami River in Hamilton on Saturday morning I found a number of stoneflies and Chironomid midges that must have hatched out Friday when it warmed up. The weekend temperatures were fairly warm, so I assume the hatch continued and continues.
The top stonefly is roughly 10mm in length, not counting the antennae. The bottom stonefly is about 5mm in length, not counting antennae or tails.
And a likely female:
I hope to key out the stoneflies properly in the next few days and send them on to someone who knows more about them. The Ohio Biological Survey used to have a collecting program for winter stoneflies. Perhaps they still do. Here's a link to an article about Ohio River Plecoptera that has some information about winter stoneflies.
Here are two stoneflies:
The top stonefly is roughly 10mm in length, not counting the antennae. The bottom stonefly is about 5mm in length, not counting antennae or tails.There were also a lot of Chironomid midges. Here are two, each 2 or 3mm in length, which are possibly (probably?) the same species. A male, with his "feathery" plumed antennae:
And a likely female:
I hope to key out the stoneflies properly in the next few days and send them on to someone who knows more about them. The Ohio Biological Survey used to have a collecting program for winter stoneflies. Perhaps they still do. Here's a link to an article about Ohio River Plecoptera that has some information about winter stoneflies.
Comments
Post a Comment