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.
Most physical descriptions on Troutnut are direct or slightly edited quotes from the original scientific sources describing or updating the species, although there may be errors in copying them to this website. Such descriptions aren't always definitive, because species often turn out to be more variable than the original describers observed. In some cases, only a single specimen was described! However, they are useful starting points.
This is a brownish species without distinct color pattern. The head and thorax and tip of the abdomen are dark brown; middle abdominal segments, legs, and tails paler brown. Wings with reddish longitudinal veins and with the cross veins also tinged except in the basal 3rd; most heavily in the stigmatic region, where the cross veins are oblique, rather crowded, and some of them forked. 9th sternite narrowly divided by a V-shaped notch. Forceps tapering rather regularly from base to apex, slightly corrugated internally; the 3rd segment as large as the 2nd. Penes separated for about half their length by a V-shaped notch that is rounded proximally; their outer margins parallel almost to the tip where a triangular tooth projects laterally. There is no reflexed spur and there is no apical tooth (see fig. 134).