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 one was surprisingly straightforward to identify. The lack of a sclerite at the base of the lateral hump narrows the field quite a bit, and the other options followed fairly obvious characteristics to Clostoeca, which only has one species, Clostoeca disjuncta.
I collected these insects from the head waters of a spring creek just south-west of rochester, ny. In this stream i don't believe the mayfly nymphs play a significant role in a trouts diet until they hatch, as they are out numbered 500-1 by scuds on the stream bed and only become distinguishable to trout on their way up to the surface or while in the surface film.
Sorry for the crude macro photos ... I'm still trying to prefect this part of my game...
1 Are #1 & #2 the same species? Family Ephemerellidae ... subvaria?
2 Family Ephemerellidae... subvaria? or Fam. Caenis?
3 Family Baetidae ... but what genera? Pseudocloeon?
Taxon on Mar 15, 2009March 15th, 2009, 5:37 pm EDT
Andrew,
I believe your photo labeled #3 to be of a Baetis nymph, probably B. tricaudatus, and your photos labeled 2 & 1 to be of Ephemerella nymphs, both probably E. subvaria.
Thank you Roger! I hope to have a macro lens and flash Jason suggest soon so I can start taking high quality photos. Just need to save for a couple more pay checks!!