Stoneflies - Plecoptera: Chloroperlidae of Gunnison County, Colorado
Sweltsa lamba Rheocrene Sallfly(Needham and Claassen 1925)
Updated 6 January 2026
Notes
Older publications may refer to this stonefly as Alloperla lamba.
Good Links
On this website:
Introduction to Sweltsa
Other Websites:
Photos, Map, Taxon Identifier Numbers - from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Sweltsa lamba at Gbif
Photos, Map, Museums, DNA - Barcode of Life Data System
References
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 180: "This species is most common in springs and streams near springs. The adults emerge from June to October."
Duffield,RM and Nelson,CH 1998 Stoneflies (Plecoptera) in the diet of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchell) in Libby Creek, Wyoming, USA. Hydrobiologia 380, 59-65.
Abstract: "The stonefly component of a naturally reproducing population of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) was studied by analyzing 216 stomach pump samples collected between May 15 and August 10, 1991 and 1992, from Libby Creek, an alpine stream in the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. Stoneflies constituted 10.3% of the total items recovered and were the second most abundant order in the samples. Nineteen species of Plecoptera representing five families were identified. Approximately 43% of all stoneflies were Sweltsa lamba; the next most prevalent species was Zapada haysi (12%). The other prevalent insect orders in the samples were Diptera (57.2%), Ephemeroptera (8.4%) and Trichoptera (6.1%). Terrestrial Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera were most common in July and August."
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 394: "The type locality for this species is Estes Park. It is the common Sweltsa of swall to medium-sized streams of the mountain and plateau region. It can also be collected in small rheocrenes along the Front Range at medium elevationss (1,600-2,000 m)."
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 Alloperla lamba on pages 115 and 116.
South,EJ; Skinner,RK; DeWalt,RE; Davis,MA; Johnson,KP; Teslenko,VA; Lee,JJ; Malison,RL; Hwang,JM; Bae,YJ and Myers,LW 2021 A new family of stoneflies (Insecta: Plecoptera), Kathroperlidae, fam. n., with a phylogenomic analysis of the Paraperlinae (Plecoptera: Chloroperlidae). Insect Systematics and Diversity, 5(4), p.1. PDF
Table 1 indicates a S. lamda specimen was used in the phylogenetic analyses.
Surdick,RF 1985 Nearctic Genera of Chloroperlinae (Plecoptera:Chloroperlidae). University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL. 146 pages.
Surdick,RF 1995 New western nearctic Sweltsa (Plecoptera: Chloroperlidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 97 (1) 161-177.
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 45: "Sweltsa lamba is one of the most common chloroperlid stoneflies in the SPRB. The type locality is Fern Lake in RMNP near Estes Park, Colorado (Needham and Claassen, 1925). This species is usually associated with small, high-elevation streams (Baumann and others, 1977) but can also be collected from mid-elevation sites in the SPRB (Kondratieff and Baumann, 2002)" The elevation range is 6,150-11,200 feet and the adults emerge from May-September.
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