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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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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By Troutnut on September 28th, 2020
On September 29th I went up to the mountains to sight in my hunting rifle in advance of deer season. However, the custom ammunition I ordered was the wrong length and wouldn't fit into the chamber, so that job ended quickly. (I won't name the company, because they bent over backward to make it right, and I got it fixed by hunting season.) As a consolation prize to make the trip productive, I drove to a nearby stream and played with the colorful little rainbows and cutthroat trout on perdigon nymphs. As a bonus, I caught a striking and unusual species of Siphlonurus mayfly.
Photos by Troutnut from Mystery Creek #249 in Washington
Closeup insects by Troutnut from Mystery Creek #249 in Washington
I found this specimen and saw a few more of its kind during midday on a small, steep, rocky creek fairly high in the Cascades, different from the previously reported habitats of its species.
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