What is a stonefly? 
Stoneflies are insects that have an aquatic nymph (also called larvae) phase that takes place primarily in rivers and streams and a terrestrial adult phase that focuses on the stream riparian corridor.
Our study focuses on Capniidae (Genera: Allocapnia) Winter Stoneflies. There are several species of Capniidae that are endemic to the Ouachita-Ozarks Mountain Region
Fish love to eat stonefly nymphs and fisherman have long mimicked adults and nymphs in artificially-tied flies used to catch bass and trout for over 4 centuries.
Adults hang out at the waters edge in the winter. Adult stoneflies can also serve as food for terrestrial fauna, like nighthawks, as they emerge into the terrestrial world to mate.
Allocapnia spp. adults are small and are needed to identify the species in this genera.
What are Arkansas Winter Stoneflies? The Arkansas Ozark-Ouachita Mountain region has 88 species of stoneflies distributed across 8 families and 24 genera. Some species have nymphs that transition into the adult phase during the winter and are called “winter stoneflies”. Capniidae are a winter stonefly family that contains several species endemic to the Ozark-Ouachita Mountain region. All of these species belong to the genera Allocapnia. Our project objective is to obtain baseline information on the current distribution, habitat requirements, life history, and population status of Allocapnia in Arkansas.
Who are we and what are we doing? We represent a team of professors from UA, natural resource professionals, and UA graduate and undergraduate students that love Arkansas stream biology and ecology. To complete our research objective, we will need to sample stream sites from the Ouachita’s to the Ozark Highlands that have variable characteristics representing this landscape. Local environmental and biological characteristics will be measured at each site and adults will need to be collected to determine species identifications. Data from these streams will be used to produce distributional models and maps for Ozark winter stonefly species. We hope to see you sometime in a stream near you and we are always ready to accept preserved adult stonefly samples from the Arkansas community to help document species distributions. If you want to be involved in the stonefly census during 2020-2021 by censusing a stream near you, please email stonefly@uark.edu and sign up for our facebook and twitter (#ArkansasStonefly) for project updates.
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