Montana Field Guide

Male four millimeters long. Female four to five millimeters long. Both sexes brachypterous. General color light brown. Four cervical gills, each composed of two compressed filaments which are branched once or twice beyond the base; length of each gill about six times its width at the base. Head wider than prontum, dark brown expect for a paler area beyond the anterior ocellus. Pronotum about as wide as long, narrowed in width posteriorly and with the angles broadly rounded, generally dark with light lateral and posterior margins. Forewing reaching to about the middle of the metanotum, high wings slightly shorter. Antennae composed of 27-32 segments, equal to or slightly greater than the length of the body (Denning 1954).

Merritt and Cummins (1996) report that members of this family are trophically shredder-detritivores; eating large particulate organic materials such as detritus, leaves and plants.