Bill,
I would also like to know, as I encountered what appears to be the same specimens hiking to some high lakes out of Paradise Valley (Kings Canyon) several years ago, though they were not quite as large, 3/4 - 7/8 inch long. Their propulsion appeared to come from the flagella type appendages on their sides. Their bodies were very translucent. I did manage to capture a couple and put them in a plastic specimen bottle, but it cracked and leaked on the hike out. There wasn't much left to identify. Would love to know what they are. Now where's a good entomoligist when you need one? :-)
Chris R.
At 09:45 AM 9/11/2003, you wrote:
- I was recently up pretty high in the mountains darn near 10,000 ft. It was above cooke city in Montana in the sub alpine area. With scattered trees and rock outcroppings etc. I came across this pond with very cold and clear water which was full of some sort of swimming nymph? At least thats what it looked like to me. They were about an inch in length and were very adgile swimmers. The small pond was full of them. I thought that maybe they were damselfly or dragonfly nymphs but no photo I can find look like these. And I do believe that these swim differently also. I mean these things looked prehistoric. They didn't swim with a wiggle and didn't seem to have legs either but propelled themselves from the wing casing/shuck area with rythmic undulations of hairs or something? Hmm... don't know. It's hard to explain. Does anybody have any idea's or point me to some photos. I didn't fish one out (didn't want to touch them) and didn't get any photos but I did get a little mpeg video of them swimming. It's about 3.8 MB large so if any of you out there have hi speed access I'll be happy to post the clip on the web and you all can take a look. I sure wish I could figure out what these things are. Entomologists?
- Bill P.
