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.
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Nymphs of this species were fairly common in late-winter kick net samples from the upper Yakima River. Although I could not find a key to species of Zapada nymphs, a revision of the Nemouridae family by Baumann (1975) includes the following helpful sentence: "2 cervical gills on each side of midline, 1 arising inside and 1 outside of lateral cervical sclerites, usually single and elongate, sometimes constricted but with 3 or 4 branches arising beyond gill base in Zapada cinctipes." This specimen clearly has the branches and is within the range of that species.
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Arthropod Class Arachnida (Mites and Spiders)
These occasionally aquatic creatures are not known to be particularly important to trout, but I have a few neat pictures.
Specimens of the Arthropod Class Arachnida
4 Adults
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.
Water mites are common in lakes and ponds but because they are so small they do not get noticed.These specimens are from temporary wetlands in Glacier National Park.
1 Nymph
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.
2 Streamside Pictures of Arachnida Arthropods:
This spider lives in the rocks streambed of a Catskill trout stream.
In this picture: Arthropod Order Araneae (Spider).
1 Underwater Picture of Arachnida Arthropods:
A couple tiny aquatic mites are clinging to this rock.
In this picture: Arthropod Order Acari (Mite).
Discussions of Arachnida
chuck
1 replies
Last reply on Aug 20, 2008 by GONZO
I have these Arthropod Order Araneae (Spiders) all over my property last weekend in West Kill NY. Are they poisonous? Do they live in the creek? Are they coming out of the creek to hatch because each one had a wed and egg sacks inside. They are big! Any thing interesting or warnings about these, I'd like to know.
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References
- Baumann, Richard W. 1975. Revision of the Stonefly Family Nemouridae (plecoptera) : a Study Of The World Fauna At The Generic Level. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology undef(211): 1-74.