Stonefly, Green Falls

I shouldn't have been surprised to find a stonefly on the steel railing of a local bridge over now-energetic waters, but, I have to admit, it was so unexpected that I almost didn't bother to look for members of the ancient insect order Plecoptera at a spot I tend to comb closely in late winter. Stoneflies are much beloved by trout anglers, and there are many Plecopt patterns for artificial flies designed to lure in a fish. But the insects are also a lure for a certain naturalist and photographer, who looks at their emergence from the trout stream rocks below the bridge as a sign of the start of biological spring. These small invertebrates whose adults have wings with complicated vein patterns—Plecoptera comes from the Greek words for "braided wings"—are remarkably cold tolerant, and I often see them walking on top of the snow in late February and early March. That said, I've never spotted one that has emerged from its aquatic naiad stage in January, not even during the fabled January thaw. Maybe the stoneflies are trying to tell me something about the state of this year's winter. Or maybe the two insects I spotted on the bridge were simply overanxious and misguided. It happens.