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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.

Case view of a Pycnopsyche guttifera (Limnephilidae) (Great Autumn Brown Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
It's only barely visible in one of my pictures, but I confirmed under the microscope that this one has a prosternal horn and the antennae are mid-way between the eyes and front of the head capsule.

I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.

The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.

Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
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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Calloway has attached this picture to aid in identification. The message is below.
Calloway
Asheville, NC

Posts: 5
Calloway on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 2:13 am EDT
Quill Gordon or March Brown
Taxon
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Site Editor
Plano, TX

Posts: 1311
Taxon on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 3:40 am EDT
Keith-

I would say neither. I believe the mayfly photo you posted to be of an Ameletus oregonensis male imago. Where and when was the photo taken?
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
Calloway
Asheville, NC

Posts: 5
Calloway on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 3:41 am EDT
Upstate SC a few days ago
Taxon
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Site Editor
Plano, TX

Posts: 1311
Taxon on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 5:35 am EDT
Keith-

Well, in that case, it may another species of Ameletus, as I believe distribution of A. oregonensis is limited to the NW. The only Ameletus species I know of in SC is A. cryptostimulus, but unfortunately, I don't have access to a description of it, as it was first recognized in 1978, 43 years after publication of The Biology Of Mayflies, the text I most heavily rely on for mayfly species descriptions.
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
Troutnut
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Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 10:12 am EDT
None of the above. It's a "pseudo-gray drake," in the genus Siphloplecton. Compare with this one:

http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/253

I don't know how to tell the species apart. Siphloplecton basale seems to be the one most often mentioned in fly fishing books, but based on the distribution maps it seems some other species are more likely for your area.

The size and very early time of year match the Siphloplecton specimens I've collected.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
GONZO
Site Editor
"Bear Swamp," PA

Posts: 1681
GONZO on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 10:16 am EDT
Keith,

I believe this is Siphloplecton basale. Ameletus would have a sharper costal angulation on the hindwing. The dark areas in the bulla and the stigmatic regions of the forewing and the dark basal 1/3rd of the hindwing are characteristics of S. basale.
Troutnut
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Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 10:20 am EDT
Ooh! I win by 4 minutes! ;)
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Taxon
Taxon's profile picture
Site Editor
Plano, TX

Posts: 1311
Taxon on Mar 11, 2009March 11th, 2009, 12:10 pm EDT
Ah, and I stand corrected.
Best regards,
Roger Rohrbeck
www.FlyfishingEntomology.com
Troutnut
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Administrator
Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Mar 12, 2009March 12th, 2009, 8:13 pm EDT
Calloway, did you have good fishing to this hatch? When I've seen them, their numbers are always too few to provide any action on their own. They overlapped with the Hendricksons sometimes, though.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Martinlf
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Moderator
Palmyra PA

Posts: 3047
Martinlf on Mar 13, 2009March 13th, 2009, 10:32 am EDT
OK, I see Gonzo is coming out of skiing exile. Glad to have you back on. Check your PM's.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"

--Fred Chappell

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