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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
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.

Dorsal view of a Zapada cinctipes (Nemouridae) (Tiny Winter Black) Stonefly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
Nymphs of this species were fairly common in late-winter kick net samples from the upper Yakima River. Although I could not find a key to species of Zapada nymphs, a revision of the Nemouridae family by Baumann (1975) includes the following helpful sentence: "2 cervical gills on each side of midline, 1 arising inside and 1 outside of lateral cervical sclerites, usually single and elongate, sometimes constricted but with 3 or 4 branches arising beyond gill base in Zapada cinctipes." This specimen clearly has the branches and is within the range of that species.
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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Male Epeorus vitreus (Heptageniidae) (Sulphur) Mayfly Dun from the Beaverkill River in New York
This is my favorite mayfly from 2004, and it appears on my popular Be the Trout: Eat Mayflies products. Check them out!

Its identification is really up in the air. It might be a late-season vitreus dun but it may very well be one of the more obscure species in that genus.
Troutnut
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Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Jul 2, 2006July 2nd, 2006, 4:49 pm EDT
This is one of my favorite specimens from the old site pictures. I collected it in early September during a fishable hatch of its kind on a smooth, deep pool on the Beaverkill.

The eyes seem nearly contiguous, the first two segments of the fore tarsi are of equal length, and the wings are unmarked, all of which suggest Epeorus. From the above/side picture I can see that the basal costal crossveins do not slant upward as they should with Epeorus, although the main side view seems to maybe show that. I wish I had a better camera when I photographed this one.

It also pretty strongly resembles the E. vitreus dun shown in Ted Fauceglia's book, Mayflies. It clearly does not match the E. vitreus dun pictured on Color Plate XII of Hatches II, but it looks like the unidentifeid eastern Epeorus species on Color Plate XIII of the same book.

By some accounts, there does not seem to be a common eastern species of Epeorus hatching this late, but other books show it on the tail end of the emergence times for Epeorus vitreus. So that's my best guess for now.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
GONZO
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681
GONZO on Oct 28, 2008October 28th, 2008, 8:15 am EDT
The little dark marks on the posterior part of the tergites and the dark humeral vein seem consistent with a vitreus ID.

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