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Much like finding a needle in a haystack, the effort required to detect a rare and endangered species increases inversely with limited taxa distribution. The infrequency of detections combined with limited fiscal resources often leaves scientists with knowledge gaps about the ecological niche and habitat requirements necessary for conserving rare species. The Arsapnia arapahoe snowfly (A. arapahoe), was thought to be a rare and cryptic aquatic invertebrate for which only 13 individuals from two locations were known to exist in Colorado. In response to potential listing by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a threatened species, we sought to implement an improved sampling protocol and tested an iterative predictive modeling approach. Species distribution models successively employed annual presence data collected from 2015 to 2017 and detections improved. Although now understood to be a hybrid taxa, the model predicted the locations of seven additional localities while concurrently narrowing the search area and expanding the known geographic range of A. arapahoe. Given our results, we recommend an iterative species distribution modeling and sampling strategy to refine search areas and improve detection rates for rare and endangered species.

Currently, a total of 267 stonefly species are known for Canada. The biodiversity hotspot of Canadian stoneflies is British Columbia with at least 138 species, nearly 52% of all species known from Canada. Four families, the Perlodidae, Capniidae, Chloroperlidae, and Nemouridae, contain nearly 75% of all species known to occur in Canada. The family with the fewest species represented in Canada is the Peltoperlidae. The stonefly fauna of Canada consists of two major faunal assemblages, west and east. The western clade consists of those species inhabiting Manitoba, all provinces to the west, and the three territories. The eastern clade consists of species from Ontario eastward. The two clades share only 29 species (10.9% of the Canadian total), suggesting a separate origin for each clade. The available taxonomic literature for the stoneflies of Canada is reviewed.

The Arapahoe Snowfly, Arsapnia arapahoe (Nelson & Kondratieff)was recently discovered in six different first-order streams outside of the Cache la Poudre River Basin where it was previously considered endemic. Specimens of A. arapahoe were always collected in much lower relative abundance, 1.09% (±2.3SD), than other sympatric adult capniids. The first mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcodes for A. arapahoe and A. coyote (Nelson & Baumann) are presented and compared with those of A. decepta. DNA barcoding was not able to differentiate between A. arapahoe and A. decepta Banks but it was able to indicate that A. coyote is specifically distinct.