Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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This specimen keys to the Epeorus albertae group of species. Of the five species in that group, the two known in Washington state are Epeorus albertae and Epeorus dulciana. Of the two, albertae has been collected in vastly more locations in Washington than dulciana, suggesting it is far more common. On that basis alone I'm tentatively putting this nymph in albertae, with the large caveat that there's no real information to rule out dulciana.
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Mites and Spiders
This common name refers to only one class. Click its scientific name to learn more.
Arthropod Class Arachnida
These are pretty much always called Mites and Spiders.
These occasionally aquatic creatures are not known to be particularly important to trout, but I have a few neat pictures.
These tiny little aquatic mites show up in my samples from time to time. This fairly large one is only about 1mm long, so these aren't relevant to trout, but it's interesting to know that they're down there, anyway.
Mites are quite beautiful when viewed with magnification. Some get large like the middle photo which is of a red mite about the size of a pea.
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