Stonefly Mifflin county March 25

[Tups]

Can anyone ID this stonefly?

 

[Tups]

My apologies. Pic won't load from my phone. Black stonefly about the stream on March 25 and 26 2017. Limestone stream Mifflin county. Fly body robust and jet black size 12. Not a needle fly. Wings black and lying flat over back just barely longer than the body. Two antennae. this fly was not a grannom. Not a caddis fly. Reminded me of a lightning bug without the lightning.

 

[jifigz]

The picture would help a lot but it just sounds like a Black Stonefly to me. They can easily be a size 12. They hatch like crazy out of the Juniata each February through March. There were tons of them in that big snow storm the other week. It was pretty neat.

 

[Dave_W]

jifigz wrote:
The picture would help a lot but it just sounds like a Black Stonefly to me. They can easily be a size 12. They hatch like crazy out of the Juniata each February through March. There were tons of them in that big snow storm the other week. It was pretty neat.

Agree. The heaviest early black/brown stonefly hatch I've ever seen was on the lower Juniata.

 

[Tups]

Thanks for the replies. Any idea what the scientific name might be for this fly?

 

[Dave_W]

The little black stones are from the capniidae family. The browns are genus strophopteryx.

 

[Tups]

Thank you for the replies. I will try again to post a pic. If anyone recognizes this fly to genus, I would appreciate your further input. Thanks again.

 

[Tups]

pic

 

[Tups]

pic

 

[Tups]

pic

 

[Tups]

sorry about that last crappy image. I'll try resizing again.

 

[Dave_W]

Hhmmm...

That does not appear to me to be any species of stonefly. Not sure what it might be.

 

[Maurice]

Looks like a beetle...perhaps Ringo?

 

[Tups]

Coleoptera, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And with a bug like that
You know you should be glad.

Thanks for the levity Maurice, but I am ruling out the beetle order (Coleoptera). This bug lacks significant mouth parts, nor does it have a hard, shell-like outer wing.

All joking aside, I am familiar with the snow flies and needle flies (both stoneflies) which are active this time of year, but this insect did not fit the bill. Too robust.

In profile, it's body looks like a caddis fly, but it folds its wings flat on its back, like a stonefly. Unlike a stonefly, it lacks cerci (tails), which suggests caddis fly.

I am leaning towards Neuroptera (alderflies, etc.), which it seems to resemble. However all of the alderfly pictures I have seen show the wings folded tent-like across the back, like a caddis fly.

These bugs were observed skittering and fluttering across the surface of the water as well as crawling through the streamside grass and stones. Only the adults were seen. Not a heavy "hatch," if hatch it be, but the trout were certainly excited by the activity.

A size 16, 2xlong black wet fly fished across and down was a killing technique, though no trout were killed.

I am fairly certain I ran into this fly 20 years ago in early spring on Bowman's Creek, and the fish were equally turned-on then.

 

[Tups]

Black wet fly

 

[jifigz]

That isn't a stonefly and I just saw one of those clinging to a house here in the property the other day. I picked it up, checked it out, and didn't know what it was and sent it on its way. It kind of had an "ant-ish" appearance to it.