Brine shrimp.

 Mono Lake is home to about 7 trillion brine shrimp that are found nowhere else in the world. Brine shrimp and alkali flies thrive in water that is 2.5 times as salty and 80 times as alkaline as seawater, providing a feast for 70 species of migratory birds. Both the brine shrimp and the alkaline flys comsume microscopic algae. The brine shrimp are also commercially harvested for fish food. One firm harvests between 125,000 and 200,000 pounds wet weight annually under a California Department of Fish and Game permit. The brine shrimp population appears to be unaffected by either bird predation or harvest.
Floating brine shrimp net
 Mono Lake alkali flies.
Alkali-flies on the Mono Lake shore


How did the Mono Lake's alkali-fly get its name?  
   
Ephydra hydropyrus hians is the full name and was discovered by a scientist named Say in 1830.  Say discovered the fly in an area called Mono Basin in California.  The area just east of Yosemite was home to Kuzedika or Mono Lake Paiutes. The Paiutes called the pupae 'kutsavi,' and during the summer would harvest it and use is as a main source of food.  Trade between other tribes in the area become popular and neighboring Yokuts called the Paiutes 'Monoche' and their food 'mono'.  It is believed that during a U.S. Cavalry chase of Indians to the east side of the Sierra Nevada they came upon Mono Basin area.  They guides being Yokuts, taught them the word mono for the area. The alkali-fly life cycle is typical of many insects.  Developing from an egg to larva before pupating and metamorphosing.  Female alkali-flies walk down a substrate and lay their eggs usually on algae mats at depths of about 3 meters in Mono Lake.