Sometimes the subjects come to you
The day was done and I was happy with the shots I had gotten. We had walked at Twin Falls State Park and I had taken some decent shots that day, including my first silverfish. As I was chatting about how to find interesting insects, I glanced at my tripod that was sitting on the ground. There was something interesting climbing on it. I could not identify the insect, but quickly got some shots of it as it explored this strange thing that had invaded its forest.
The patterns on its wings in particular were very interesting.I wish now that I had tried to get a closer shot of them, but this particular critter was not going to sit still. Getting good shots of it was a challenge. However, after consulting my literature at home I am now fairly certain of what this is.
This is none other than the stonefly. I had never photographed a stonefly before, so this was a first for me. Many people know stoneflies by their nymphs - which are aquatic and look quite a bit different. This one is an adult. From my literature, many adult stoneflies do not eat at all and still stay close to the riverbank - which makes sense as that is where I found this one.
Looking at another book, there are two kinds of stoneflies - “summer stoneflies” and “winter stoneflies”. The adults of summer stoneflies appear towards the end of spring and often do not eat. The adults of winter stoneflies appear much earlier and eat algae or pollen. As I found this particular specimen in late February, I suspect it is a winter stonefly.
Stoneflies are of the order Plecoptera. I am not sure of the family of this individual but from reading it appears to be of the family Capniidae, as the adults of that family appear at the end of February and early March.
Most of the time I go looking for my subjects, but once in awhile an interesting subject comes to me.
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Tags: insect, macro, photography, plecoptera, stonefly