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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Lateral view of a Male Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #308 in Washington
This dun emerged from a mature nymph on my desk. Unfortunately its wings didn't perfectly dry out.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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Millcreek has attached these 4 pictures. The message is below.
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on May 28, 2016May 28th, 2016, 6:03 pm EDT
I found this one in the Russian River on a substrate of gravel and cobble in a glide. It's rarely collected in this part of the river. I've found two of them so far. Collected on the 26th of April. Overall length is 15 mm excluding the cerci.

Originally had the genus and species at Rickera sorpta using Stewart and Stark's "Nymphs of North American Stonefly Genera (Plecoptera)"and Stewart and Stark's "Nymphs of North American Perlodinae Genera (Plecoptera; Perlodinae)". https://journals.lib.byu.edu/spc/index.php/wnan/article/viewFile/29199/27662

However when I submitted it to Bugguide I found out that it is referred to as Kogotus/Rickera. I'll let the following serve as an explanation.

Kogotus vs. Rickera
For California aquatic bioassessment, we routinely leave perlodid nymphs with unidentate lacinia at the provisional (colloquially, "slash ID") taxon “Kogotus/Rickera”. The reason for this is that the single character given in the various keys (Stewart and Stark, 2002, for one) is the presence of a transverse suture connecting the anterior corners of the furcal pits for Rickera. This character is considered absent for Kogotus. However, this is not a straightforward character. According to my colleague and Plecoptera specialist, John Sandberg, this is actually a character of the adult showing through the larval exoskeleton. We’ve seen the cuticle fold in that exact location on Kogotus nymphs from Colorado, thus making them appear to be Rickera, even though we’ve had associated Kogotus modestus adults from those locations and Rickera does not range that far East.

Both Rickera sorpta and Kogotus nonus are known from CA, but we don’t know the complete distributions for each, only that they likely overlap. We have several nice populations of Rickera here in Butte and Plumas Counties which we’ve been studying for many years, so we have adults and associated final instar nymphs. Otherwise, the nymph pigment patterns are so similar between the two taxa, we can’t reliably separate specimens without having reared or carefully associated nymphs from the same location as live-caught adults.

For this specimen, I’d recommend leaving the ID at Diploperlini or using the “slash ID” of Kogotus/Rickera. I know this is not a satisfying determination, but to place this specimen to species would basically be a guess without associated adults. Speaking of which, I’d suggest watching for adults or attempting to rear out nymphs to make the species association. I can't recall whether you've been rearing aquatics, but if not, either John or I would be glad to give you some pointers on a very easy and efficient rearing method for stonefly nymphs.
… Brady Richards, 29 April, 2016 - 1:43pm
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
Entoman
Entoman's profile picture
Northern CA & ID

Posts: 2604
Entoman on Jun 3, 2016June 3rd, 2016, 12:06 pm EDT
Hey Mark,

Excellent thread.. Love to hear about the method for raising Stonefly nymphs. I've never had much luck at it so it would be very helpful. I'm assuming it will also work for mayfly clinger nymphs where it would be beyond very helpful!
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Jun 3, 2016June 3rd, 2016, 6:10 pm EDT
Kurt - Since I only found a couple of these nymphs, rearing them didn't seem practical, however here is a link to an article by these guys on stonefly rearing. http://www.safit.org/MemberDocs/Vol2No3_4.pdf
Article starts on page 4.


"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
Troutnut
Troutnut's profile picture
Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Jul 29, 2019July 29th, 2019, 11:57 am EDT
I'm bumping this interesting thread because I'm trying to identify a "Kogotus/Rickeri" that turned up abundantly in my samples from a small stream in Washington.

Edit: Nevermind. I got an adult from the same date/site that keys to Kogotus nonus, so I'm assuming the nymphs are the same. It's still an interesting post, anyway.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist

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