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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Dorsal view of a Skwala (Perlodidae) (Large Springfly) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
This Skwala nymph still has a couple months left to go before hatching, but it's still a good representative of its species, which was extremely abundant in my sample for a stonefly of this size. It's obvious why the Yakima is known for its Skwala hatch.
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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Hydrophilidae (Giant Water Scavenger Beetle) Beetle Adult Pictures

This is a water beetle. It is the hardest object in the world to pick up with tweezers. The second hardest is Mount Everest.

This beetle was collected from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin on January 13th, 2004 and added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on January 25th, 2006.

Discussions of this Adult

Giant Water Scavenger Beetle
2 replies
Posted by GONZO on Oct 14, 2006
Last reply on Nov 27, 2006 by GONZO
I'm not great on beetle identification, but this one seems pretty easy--Hydrophilus triangularis.
Beetle ID
1 replies
Posted by DMM on Nov 18, 2006
Last reply on Nov 20, 2006 by Troutnut
Beetles can be very tricky to identify. It has been my experience that it is extremely difficult to identify many insects to the species level based on pictures alone. It may not be able to be positively identified to genus either. The family is probably correct though, except the family isn't listed here. The family should be Hydrophilidae. Hydrophiloidea is a superfamily designation. Having said that, GONZO's ID could be correct (and if he has the experience, probably is), it's just not possible for me to confirm this.

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Hydrophilidae (Giant Water Scavenger Beetle) Beetle Adult Pictures

Collection details
Location: Namekagon River, Wisconsin
Date: January 13th, 2004
Added to site: January 25th, 2006
Author: Troutnut
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