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.

This is one of the many shallow, unnamed lakes in the Arctic coastal plain near the Dalton Highway.

From Dalton Highway in Alaska

Stream photos

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Glossosoma (Little Brown Short-horned Sedge) Caddisfly Larva Glossosoma (Little Brown Short-horned Sedge) Caddisfly Larva

Dorsal view of a Glossosoma (Glossosomatidae) (Little Brown Short-horned Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington

I caught this tiny larva without a case, but it seems to key pretty clearly to to Glossosomatidae. From there, the lack of sclerites on the mesonotum points to either Glossosoma or Anagapetus. Although it's difficult to see in a 2D image from the microscope, it's pretty clear in the live 3D view that the pronotum is only excised about 1/3 of its length to accommodate the forecoxa, not 2/3, which points to Glossosoma at Couplet 5 of the Key to Genera of Glossosomatidae Larvae.

11 Recently Added Photos

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.

Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

Psephenus (Water Penny) Beetle Larva Pictures

Psephenus (Psephenidae) (Water Penny) Beetle Larva from Fall Creek in New York

Dorsal view of a Psephenus (Psephenidae) (Water Penny) Beetle Larva from Fall Creek in New York

Here's a "water penny" (a Psephenidae beetle larva) crawling around on a real penny.

Artistic view of a Psephenus (Psephenidae) (Water Penny) Beetle Larva from Fall Creek in New York

This beetle was collected from Fall Creek in New York on March 29th, 2006 and added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on April 6th, 2006.

Discussions of this Larva

Water Penny nymph

2 replies

Posted by Wbranch on Jan 18, 2014

Last reply on Jan 20, 2014 by Wbranch

I'm pretty sure there are no current flies tied specifically to imitate the Water Penny. I really don't know if they are a significant food source to trout. If I was to tie one I would just use a pair of those round Velcro tabs about 1/2" in diameter and put one tab on the bottom of the hook shank and add some glue and put the other half on top and press them together so the Velcro hook and loops mesh and the glue is distributed well. After the glue dried I could color the top and bottom with various waterproof pens and trim the diameter to match the size of the natural.

Water Penny (ventral image)

2 replies

Posted by LowBudget on Jan 16, 2014

Last reply on Jan 18, 2014 by LowBudget

Lately I've become interested in water pennies, though I can't say why. Is a water penny nymph fly in my future?

Anyway, I took this picture today. It is a live specimen that I collected from Trout Creek, which flows into the Cannonsville Reservoir / West Branch of the Delaware river in New York in October 2013. It's current home is a 2 gallon aquarium it shares with some common stoneflies. I used a 50mm macro lens on a Cannon EOS camera with brown felt as the background. I made a special "V" shaped micro aquarium for it so that it would attach to the side wall and not the bottom so that I could get this picture.

Perhaps I'll be able to rear some adults!

Ed

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