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 is an interesting one. Following the keys in Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019) and Jacobus et al. (2014), it keys clearly to Ephemerella. Jacobus et al provide a key to species, but some of the characteristics are tricky to interpret without illustrations. If I didn't make any mistakes, this one keys to Ephemerella mucronata, which has not previously been reported any closer to here than Montana and Alberta. The main character seems to fit well: "Abdominal terga with prominent, paired, subparallel, spiculate ridges." Several illustrations or descriptions of this holarctic species from the US and Europe seem to match, including the body length, tarsal claws and denticles, labial palp, and gill shapes. These sources include including Richard Allen's original description of this species in North America under the now-defunct name E. moffatae in Allen RK (1977) and the figures in this description of the species in Italy.
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True Fly Family Tipulidae (Crane Flies)
Hatching behavior
Craneflies pupate for one to three weeks. The species which do so in the water then swim to the surface to emerge in the style of caddisflies, and are presumably vulnerable to trout, though I have not read about good fishing during these events.Swisher and Richards in Selective Trout say the larvae all crawl out of the water to pupate, conflicting with the above account. There are so many species that it seems likely both behaviors occur in some species.
Egg-Laying behavior
Adult craneflies are occasionally important during their mating flights when their clumsy flying can crash them by accident into the water. Windy days may also blow them in.Larva & pupa biology
Diet: Mostly vegetation
They live as larvae for about a year and sometimes the larvae end up in the drift in good enough numbers to get the trout excited. Buggy grub-like flies are locally known to perform well on certain rivers, and this may be due to a good population of drifting cranefly larvae (or perhaps I speculate too far). In general, larvae are more likely to be important than the adults.
Ernest Schwiebert notes in Matching the Hatch that they are most common in trout stomachs after the water has been high.
Specimens of Crane Flies:
4 Adults
This is a small cranefly species.
Collected near the Touchet River in Dayton, WA.
7 Larvae
1 Streamside Picture of Crane Flies:
Several craneflies formed a mating cluster here in a dark rootwad along the bank of a large limestone trout stream.
In this picture: True Fly Family Tipulidae (Crane Fly).
Start a Discussion of Tipulidae
References
- Jacobus, L. M., Wiersema, N.A., and Webb, J.M. 2014. Identification of Far Northern and Western North American Mayfly Larvae (Insecta: Ephemeroptera), North of Mexico; Version 2. Joint Aquatic Science meeting, Portland, OR. Unpublished workshop manual. 1-176.
- Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. 2019. An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America (Fifth Edition). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
- Schwiebert, Ernest G. 1955. Matching the Hatch. MacMillan Publishing Company.
- Swisher, Doug and Carl Richards. 2000. Selective Trout. The Lyons Press.
True Fly Family Tipulidae (Crane Flies)
Taxonomy
5 genera (Brachypremna, Ctenophora, Holorusia, Nephrotoma, and Tipula) aren't included.