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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
Blue-winged Olives
Baetis

Tiny Baetis mayflies are perhaps the most commonly encountered and imitated by anglers on all American trout streams due to their great abundance, widespread distribution, and trout-friendly emergence habits.

Case view of a Pycnopsyche guttifera (Limnephilidae) (Great Autumn Brown Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
It's only barely visible in one of my pictures, but I confirmed under the microscope that this one has a prosternal horn and the antennae are mid-way between the eyes and front of the head capsule.

I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.

The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.

Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
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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Blue Quills

Like most common names,"Blue Quill" can refer to more than one taxon. They're previewed below, along with 9 specimens. For more detail click through to the scientific names.

Mayfly Species Neoleptophlebia adoptiva

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This is the best Spring hatch after the Quill Gordons (Epeorus pleuralis) but before the Hendricksons (Ephemerella subvaria) in most parts of the East, although it can overlap with both. The Blue Quills are small mayflies (hook size 16-20) but they can hatch in incredible numbers at a time when eager trout are just beginning to look to the surface after a hungry winter.
Lateral view of a Male Neoleptophlebia adoptiva (Leptophlebiidae) (Blue Quill) Mayfly Spinner from Factory Brook in New York
Based on the pale longitudinal forewing veins (excepting the costals), dark middle terga, and genitalia (Burks '53), this specimen is P. adoptiva.

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia gregalis

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This species produces fishable hatches, but it is not well-known in angling literature. This is due primarily to its range, which consists only of California and parts of Oregon. It is a small (by western Paraleptophlebia standards) Spring emerger that fills the niche taken by Paraleptophlebia heteronea in the rest of the West.

Mayfly Species Neoleptophlebia heteronea

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This species is the primary spring emerging Paraleptophlebia throughout the western region. Outside of California and parts of Oregon, if you run into a little blue winged brown bodied fly with three tails in the spring, it's probably this.
Lateral view of a Male Neoleptophlebia heteronea (Leptophlebiidae) (Blue Quill) Mayfly Spinner from the Madison River in Montana
I keyed this one out to species on the microscope because it was too small for the genitalia to show the distinguishing characteristics in the images here.

Mayfly Genus Paraleptophlebia

These are often called Blue Quills.
There are many species in this genus of mayflies, and some of them produce excellent hatches. Commonly known as Blue Quills or Mahogany Duns, they include some of the first mayflies to hatch in the Spring and some of the last to finish in the Fall.

In the East and Midwest, their small size (16 to 20, but mostly 18's) makes them difficult to match with old techniques. In the 1950s Ernest Schwiebert wrote in Matching the Hatch:

"The Paraleptophlebia hatches are the seasonal Waterloo of most anglers, for without fine tippets and tiny flies an empty basket is assured."

Fortunately, modern anglers with experience fishing hatches of tiny Baetis and Tricorythodes mayflies (and access to space-age tippet materials) are better prepared for eastern Paraleptophlebia. It's hard to make sense of so many species, but only one is very important and others can be considered in groups because they often hatch together:
In the West, it is a different story. For starters the species run much larger and can be imitated with flies as large as size 12, often size 14, and rarely smaller than 16. Another difference is the West has species with tusks! Many anglers upon first seeing them think they are immature burrowing nymphs of the species Ephemera simulans aka Brown Drake. With their large tusks, feathery gills, and slender uniform build, it's an easy mistake to make. Using groups again:
Female Paraleptophlebia debilis (Leptophlebiidae) (Mahogany Dun) Mayfly Dun from the Fall River in California
Size: 9mm. These photos really highlight the brown pigmentation of the wing venation, but in the hand the wings look to be a uniform smokey gray. - Entoman
Lateral view of a Male Paraleptophlebia sculleni (Leptophlebiidae) Mayfly Spinner from Mystery Creek #249 in Washington
This specimen (and a few others I collected but didn't photograph) appear to represent the first finding of Paraleptophlebia sculleni outside the Oregon Cascades, although it is not a monumental leap from there to the Washington Cascades. The key characteristics are fairly clear.
Paraleptophlebia (Leptophlebiidae) (Blue Quill) Mayfly Nymph from Big Brook in Wisconsin

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia guttata

These are often called Blue Quills.
This species often hatches together with Paraleptophlebia mollis and Paraleptophlebia strigula.

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia strigula

These are often called Blue Quills.
This species often hatches together with Paraleptophlebia mollis and Paraleptophlebia guttata.

Mayfly Species Leptophlebia johnsoni

These are very rarely called Blue Quills.

Mayfly Species Epeorus pleuralis

These are very rarely called Blue Quills.
This is the first really good dry-fly opportunity of the season for most Eastern anglers. They are large mayflies and they have good points of vulnerability both underwater and on the surface.
Lateral view of a Male Epeorus pleuralis (Heptageniidae) (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Dun from Dresserville Creek in New York
I kept this specimen after photographing it and it molted into a spinner in perfect condition, which I photographed here.
Lateral view of a Male Epeorus pleuralis (Heptageniidae) (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Spinner from Mongaup Creek in New York
I spent most of the day looking for Epeorus pluralis duns or spinners without any luck on the major Catskill rivers. Finally in the evening I arrived at a small stream somebody had recommended, and when I got out of the car I was happy to find that I had parked in the middle of a cloud of male spinners.
Dorsal view of a Epeorus pleuralis (Heptageniidae) (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Nymph from Mongaup Creek in New York
This Epeorus pluralis dun is recently deceased in these photos. I decided not to photograph several lively, less mature nymphs. This one was ready to hatch, as indicated by the black wing pads. I believe it had not been dead long enough to lose its natural coloration.

References

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