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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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.
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.
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This topic is about the Mayfly Species Ephemerella invaria
This species, the primary "Sulphur" hatch, stirs many feelings in the angler. There is nostalgia for days when everything clicked and large, selective trout were brought to hand. There is the bewildering memory of towering clouds of spinners which promise great fishing and then vanish back into the aspens as night falls. There is frustration from the maddening selectivity with which trout approach the emerging duns--a vexing challenge that, for some of us, is the source of our excitement when Sulphur time rolls around.Ephemerella invaria is one of the two species frequently known as Sulphurs (the other is Ephemerella dorothea). There used to be a third, Ephemerella rotunda, but entomologists recently discovered that invaria and rotunda are a single species with an incredible range of individual variation. This variation and the similarity to the also variable dorothea make telling them apart exceptionally tricky.
As the combination of two already prolific species, this has become the most abundant of all mayfly species in Eastern and Midwestern trout streams.
Example specimens
Martinlf on May 19, 2009May 19th, 2009, 2:54 pm EDT
OK, this is going to seem like a major duh experience for some of you, but the other night I found a sulphur spinner on the door of a bathhouse in a campground I was staying at. Looking for other bugs I then saw a pale nymph shuck on the door. I was totally confused. A nymph this far from the stream? Was this some alien bug? Looking closer I noticed that the shape was too slender for a nymph and that the wing pads were more like little protruding pockets--and it hit me. Spinner shuck. I knew that mayflies molted to produce a spinner, but I had thought the shuck would be more insubstantial--something that would be flimsy and lack form. This was so cool, and at the same time I felt so silly for thinking it could somehow have been a nymph shuck. It's the first spinner shuck I've seen, but I assume that I'll start seeing them everywhere now, like a new word you learn. Anybody else have a spinner shuck story?
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
Konchu on May 19, 2009May 19th, 2009, 3:32 pm EDT
Worked a Caenis hatch in the Dakotas and came away covered in shucks. They were using our shirts to land and molt. It was amazing.
Shawnny3 on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 12:14 am EDT
Nice story, Louis. The "duh" moments in my flyfishing experience are too numerous to mention.
-Shawn
-Shawn
Jewelry-Quality Artistic Salmon Flies, by Shawn Davis
www.davisflydesigns.com
www.davisflydesigns.com
Wiflyfisher on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 12:34 am EDT
I think you mean a "dun shuck" when molting into a spinner, not a "spinner shuck"
I see a lot of shucked mayfly dun skins on our screened in porch at the lake. Hex. limbata skins all over the place at times when the hatch is heavy.
I see a lot of shucked mayfly dun skins on our screened in porch at the lake. Hex. limbata skins all over the place at times when the hatch is heavy.
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Martinlf on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 1:46 am EDT
Good point, John. Thanks for the clarification.
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
Shawnny3 on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 12:36 pm EDT
You calling Louis a "dun shuck", John? This forum has an interesting way of getting people riled up.
Regardless of how the term was intended, I think it should become a new fishing expletive. I know I'm going to say it loudly to myself the next time I flip my leader into a tall tree.
-Shawn
Regardless of how the term was intended, I think it should become a new fishing expletive. I know I'm going to say it loudly to myself the next time I flip my leader into a tall tree.
-Shawn
Jewelry-Quality Artistic Salmon Flies, by Shawn Davis
www.davisflydesigns.com
www.davisflydesigns.com
Troutnut on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 9:23 pm EDT
I can see the hit movie now! A passenger jet flies through a massive Hex hatch, and it's up to Samuel L. Jackson to save the passengers and the engines from millions of mayflies. Near the end of the movie he finally gets really angry and proclaims, I have had it with these dunner-shucking drakes on this dunner-shucking plane!
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Wiflyfisher on May 20, 2009May 20th, 2009, 11:31 pm EDT
Well, I was "dun shucked" when Louis said he saw a "spinner shuck".
Shawn, when I backcast my fly & leader into the tree I have better, more choice words to mumble to myself, but dun shuck might fit the bill too.
Jason, now you can make a new t-shirt or coffee mug over at Cafe Press that says: "I am a dun shuck".
Shawn, when I backcast my fly & leader into the tree I have better, more choice words to mumble to myself, but dun shuck might fit the bill too.
Jason, now you can make a new t-shirt or coffee mug over at Cafe Press that says: "I am a dun shuck".
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Geezer on Jul 24, 2009July 24th, 2009, 4:48 am EDT
Okay, the "Drakes on the Plane" reference was pretty 'effin' funny, Troutnut. I actually laughed out loud about it.
Ericd on Jul 24, 2009July 24th, 2009, 9:31 am EDT
Oh boy, that is funny.
I can't wait to add this new expletive to my fishing. My friends already shake their heads at "frelling," "fracking," and "gorram."
I can't wait to add this new expletive to my fishing. My friends already shake their heads at "frelling," "fracking," and "gorram."
Martinlf on Jul 24, 2009July 24th, 2009, 1:23 pm EDT
Now I'm figuring out what those white husks are on the water in the middst of the Trico hatch. I'll be dun shucked again--they're the spinner shucks!
"He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell
--Fred Chappell
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