This is a very rare mayfly in western Montana. The shape of the last gill is a key to its identification. I have collected this species in only one location.

This stonefly emerged in my aquarium, and unfortunately I severely damaged its wings just trying to catch it. It's still an interesting specimen, especially since I was able to also photograph the nymphal shuck it emerged from. I was surprised by just how light it was shortly after emerging. I photographed it a couple days later when it had darkened considerably; it was a pale, almost pastel yellow at first.

This shows the adult and its exuviae.

I'm glad I finally got one of these Belostoma water bugs under my good camera. I had been hoping to get one in my kick-net samples for a while with no luck, but I ended up finding this one drifting midstream just below the surface while I fished. I have frequently seen water scorpions do that, too, and I'm beginning to suspect that is a common situation travel for these large Hemiptera bugs, and perhaps the way trout are used to seeing them.

I unfortunately lost some of the originals of this specimen, so I was only able to re-process about half the pictures in the 2023 update.

I collected this beautiful male Hendrickson specimen as a dun, along with a female Hendrickson from the same hatch. Both molted into spinners in my house within a couple of days.

One of the only real benefits I've got from my rearing aquarium so far is that I've had quite a variety of midges emerge, giving me a chance to photograph these fragile little insects which are otherwise really hard to transport in photogenic form. This one recovered from being gassed and flew away before I could photograph it on the ruler, but it was very small, around 1.5mm.

This female Hendrickson spinner is in kind of bad shape, but at least now I've got some good closeup photos of one. I collected her and a male Hendrickson as duns from the same hatch, and both molted into spinners in my house within a couple of days.