Stoneflies - Plecoptera: Nemouridae of Gunnison County, ColoradoMalenka coloradensis
Colorado Forestfly, Little Western Stonefly, Little Brown Stones, Early Winter Brown(Banks) 1897
Updated 8 January 2026
Notes
The genus Malenka was previously named Nemoura. Older publications may refer to this species as Nemoura coloradensis. Malenka coloradensis is common and widespread in the mountains of western North America.
Good Links
On this website:
Malenka Introduction
Other Websites:
Photos, Map, Taxon Identifier Numbers - from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Malenka coloradensis at GBIF
Photos, Map, Museum specimens, DNA - Barcodinglife.org
References
Banks,N 1897 New North american neuropteroid insects. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 24:21-31.
Described as Nemoura coloradensis .
Baumann,RW, Gaufin,AR and Surdick,RF 1977 The stoneflies (Plecoptera) of the Rocky Mountains. Memoirs of the American Entomological Society 31, 1-208. PDF
Quote from page 32: "This species is widely distributed in the Southern Rocky Mts. The adults emerge from June to November." They mention Malenka coloradensis is present in Gunnison County.
Béthoux,O 2005 Wing venation pattern of Plecoptera (Insecta: Neoptera). Illiesia, 1(9):52-81. PDF
DeWalt,RE; Stewart,KW; Moulton,SR; Kennedy,JH 1994 Summer emergence of mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies from a Colorado mountain stream. Southwestern Naturalist 39 ()3) 249-256. PDF
Kondratieff,BC and Baumann,RW 2002 A review of the stoneflies of Colorado with description of a new species of Capnia (Plecoptera: Capniidae). Transactions of American Entomological Society 128 (3) 385-401.
Quote from page 392: "This species occurs widely throughout the state. It is usually found in seeps and small creeks, but is also present in larger lotic systems if water quality is sufficiently high."
Needham,JG and Claassen,PW 1925 A Monograph of the Plecoptera of North America. Entomological Society of America, Lafayette, Indiana. 397 pages. PDF
Described as Nemoura coloradensis.
Shepard, WD. and Stewart KW 1983 Comparative Study of Nymphal Gills in North American Stonefly Genera and a New, Proposed Paradigm of Plecoptera Gill Evolution. Miscellaneous Publications of the Entomological Society of America 13:1-57
Illustration of nymphal osmobranchiae (gills) on page 34.
Stoaks,RD and Kondratieff,BC 2014 The aquatic macroinvertebrates of a first order Colorado, USA Front Range stream: what could the biodiversity have been before irrigated agriculture?. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 87(1), pp.47-65. PDF
Quote from page 53: "It is interesting to note that the two Malenka species were temporally separated, with M. coloradensis (Banks) emerging from May to June and M. californica (Claassen) from August to September. Nymphs could not be separated to species (Table 3). Adult collections allowed for this determination."
Vieira,NK; Barnes,TR and Mitchell,KA 2011 Effects of wildfire and postfire floods on stonefly detritivores of the Pajarito Plateau, New Mexico. Western North American Naturalist, 71(2) 257-270. PDF
Zuellig,RE; Heinold,BD; Kondratieff,BC and Ruiter,DE 2012 Diversity and Distribution of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), Stoneflies (Plecoptera), and Caddisflies (Trichoptera) of the South Platte River Basin, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, 1873-2010. U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 606, 257 p. PDF - caution 46MB
Quote from page 48: "This species originally was described from Fort Collins, Colorado (Banks, 1897), where it may be locally extirpated. It occurs in a variety of habitat types (Kondratieff and Baumann, 2002). In the SPRB, populations occur on the plains at stream Slocations near the plains mountain interface in the northern part of the basin." The elevation range is 6,250-9,300 feet and the adults emerge from May-August.
Brown,WS 2004 Plecoptera or Stoneflies of Gunnison County, Colorado
www.gunnisoninsects.org
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