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.
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This specimen keys pretty easily to Onocosmoecus, and it closely resembles a specimen from Alaska which caddis expert Dave Ruiter recognized as this genus. As with that specimen, the only species in the genus documented in this area is Onocosmoecus unicolor, but Dave suggested for that specimen that there might be multiple not-yet-distinguished species under the unicolor umbrella and it would be best to stick with the genus-level ID. I'm doing the same for this one.
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This one was collected in in association with this male. It looks quite different, but that's often the case between spinner genders.
GONZO on Oct 28, 2008October 28th, 2008, 8:53 am EDT
This female has abdominal markings (spiracular dots and lines on posterior margins) and cross veins that are not crowded in the bulla region of the wing. This seems consistent with some M. modestum, and I'm pretty sure that this female is the same species as the male collected on the same day (#295).