My apologies for inserting a bit of poorly conceived humor into the bug's description yesterday, based on an old myth which there was no good reason to expect anyone to recognize. In my defense, I was still on post-surgery pain meds (alluded to in the post title
).
Nevertheless, everything but the last sentence was essentially true. Fly fishers are very familiar with many stoneflies, particularly large ones like the Golden Stonefly or Salmonfly. But hardly anyone, fly fisher or not, has heard of the Cascades Stonefly (
Doroneuria baumanni). This despite the fact that it is as large as a Golden, and an important food source for certain (non-fur-bearing!) trout in higher elevation rivers in the Cascades region. A few more pictures to illustrate:
A more complete view of the bug...
A typical Cascades river along which the adults may be found...
To find the juveniles of the species one must
submerge...
And check under and among the rocks on the bottom...
Among which also live the
rainbow trout that eat the bugs--both juveniles and adults.