Winter Stoneflies (Plecoptera)

The Story of Stream Pollution Indication, a Chilly Emergence, and Strutting in the Snow.

Sarah Wilson

As the wind slashes at your windows splattering gusts of snow, its likely that staying in a cozy shelter with slippers and hot cocoa is high on your priority list. The thought of straying outdoors with anything less than a hardy winter coat and boots on isnt even considered at this point of the year. But currently, throughout the world, and specifically, in subzero temperatures one order of insects is creeping out of ice covered streams and venturing into these arctic temperatures without a coat. This order is named Plecoptera, or the Stoneflies (Borrer and White 1970). But, only two families (Capniidae and Taeniopterygidae) regulary venture into the cold each year, granting them with the title Winter Stoneflies. Not only do they possess the ability to survive these harsh temperatures in the winter, but they are also very important indicators of pollution in their stream environments when they are aquatic nymphs during the summer months. Thus, like all good stories, I will start from the beginning, in a stream.

Figure 1: Incomplete Metamorphosis of Winter Stonefly

In early summer, the female stonefly will place her ovipositor (a female insects tool to precisely lay eggs) into a stream or river. The eggs will then develop while in the body of water for a month or so before hatching and emerging as aquatic nymphs. This type of metamorphosis is termed simple (Borrer and White 1970), or 2nd Life Stage: Nymph 1st Life Stage: Egg incomplete, since the process does not include a pupa stage. As a comparative example, you could look at the common Monarch Butterfly which performs complete metamorphosis with four life stages: egg, larvae/catepillar, pupa, adult. Stoneflies on the other hand have only three life stages: egg, nymph, adult (Figure 1). Many 3rd Life Stage: Adult insect species have incomplete life cycles like dragonflies and grasshoppers. In addition, some insects have nymphal stages that are also aquatic, such as dragonflies and mayflies. Stonefly nymphs develop in this life stage for about a year and remain in the same portion of the stream or river for most of that time. The nymphs are gill breathing and require environments with high amounts of dissolved oxygen content. Due to this, macroinvertebrates (or insects that you can see with the naked eye, and also do not possess a backbone) are often found in stream riffles (McDonald et al. 1991) (DEP 2014) because the frequent wave activity circulates more atmospheric oxygen into the aquatic setting (Image 1). The particular feature of needing highly oxygenated water leads this species and a few other aquatic insects to be known as good indicators of pollution within streams and rivers. They are referred to as clean water organisms since they are dramatically affected by dissolved oxygen reductions (Goodnight, 1973). As pollution enters these bodies of water and creates low oxygen conditions, species such as the Stonefly nymph have been recorded to exhibit decreased population sizes. Stoneflies are an insect order that is heavily

Image 1: A stream riffle, the common habitat for macroinvertebrates. (DEP 2014)

threatened due to human activities when it comes to waterbody pollution. The diversity and abundance of macroinvertebrates reveal the features of a stream in biological, chemical and physical terms (Harris et al. 1994). Therefore, their dominance in a region signifies good water quality (McDonald et al. 1991). This attribute is unique compared to most aquatic macroinvertebrates. But the winter stonefly has another cool trick up its sleeve, and this one involves antifreeze! You may have been wondering how the nymphs survive through that whole year, especially since these winter stoneflies frequent subzero temperature climates. Well, the answer is all in their chemistry. As the streams or rivers that the nymphs occupy begin to freeze in the fall so do the nymphs, but they have a special ability to accumulate specific compounds that prevent their cells from completely freezing. This phenomenon is called freeze tolerance, which is the ability to survive the freezing of your bodily fluids (Duman et al. 1991). The process entails the production of cryprotectants, which are comprised mostly of glycerol and sugar. With these components, the insects now have the ability to reduce the temperatures their bodies can endure (Walters et al. 2009), that would otherwise kill them. Other products are also made during fall, such as ice binding factors (Walters et al. 2009) or extracellular ice nucleators (Duman et al. 1991), both of which are utilized as antifreeze to ensure cells or the hemolymph (insect blood) do not freeze. A superpower such as this is extremely useful and has allowed this species to be found in environments many insects are unable to inhabit. Even when compared to the rest of the Plecoptera order, the Winter Stonefly is distinct because these two families are the only ones that actually emerge as adults during the winter months. Adulthood can be scary for many species, especially humans, but it may be less so for the Winter Stonefly because it is fully equipped for their arctic adult lifestyle. The chemicals present in the aquatic nymphs remain during the metamorphosis into the adult form and can therefore be used during their winter emergence. In fact, their ability to supercool themselves increases as an adult so that their bodies can reach an even lower temperature without their cells freezing (Duman et al. 1991). In addition, since adults have a thicker cuticular wax coating (or basically thicker skin) they are able to survive better in colder conditions than their nymphal counterparts. As you drudge through the snow this season, cursing the low wind chill while tighting the scarf around your face, remember the Winter Image 2: Winter Stonefly nymph on hand for size scale Stonefly strolling in the same conditions and surviving with ease. Instead of a heated house, this insect can only rely on their own body and by seeking shelter under rocks or snow for protection from the surface air. These little insects hold amazing qualities that can be overlooked, but like all organisms, they play an important role in

nature. So instead of complaining of winter, go outside to discover these critters and gain respect for theirs and other wildlifes cold resistant abilities. Work Cited Title Picture: http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/1031 Figure 1 Pictures: Adult:http://www.bedfordaudubon.org/seasons/winter/winter_wildflowers01.html Nymph: http://www.flyfishingsmokymountains.com/hatch.html Egg: http://troutunderground.com/2006/05/ Image 2: http://www.hrwc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/02/Stonefly%20out%20of%20water%20-%20Lloyd%202010.jpg

Borrer, D.J., R.E. White. 1970. A field guide to insects America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company. Pp. 92-97.

Duman, J.G., D.W. Wu, L. Xu, D. Tursman, and T.M. Olsen. 1991. Adaptations of insects to subzero temperatures. The Quarterly Review of Biology. Vol. 66, No. 4, pp. 387-410.

Goodnight, C.J. 1973. The use of aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators of stream pollution. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 1-13

Harris, M.A., D.W. Webb. 1994. The stoneflies (Plecoptera) of Illinois revisted. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. Vol. 67, No. 4, Pp. 340-346

McDonald, B.S., G.W. Mullins, and S. Lewis. 1991. Macroinvertebrates as indicators of stream health. The American Biology Teacher. Vol. 53, No. 8, pp. 462-466.

Walters Jr, K.R., T. Sformo, B.M. Barnes, and J.G. Duman. 2009. Freeze tolerance in an arctic Alaska stonefly. The Journal of Experimental Biology. Vol. 212. pp. 305-312.

West Virginia Department of Envrionmental Protection. 2014. Collecting macroinvertebrates from low-gradient streams. http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/getinvolved/sos/Documents/SOPs/LowgradientCollections.pdf