General: Golden Stone [Stonefly] (Hesperoperla pacifica) are aquatic creatures who live almost all of their lives in mountain streams and rivers. After about three years, they crawl out of the water and emerge as adults to mate and die within a couple of days. Emergence is coordinated, such that vast numbers can emerge on a single day.

Larval stoneflies (nymphs) have six legs, two antennae, and two gills, and they are recognized by a pale, hourglass-shaped mark on the head.

Taxonomy: Order Plecoptera (stone-flies); Family Perlidae.