The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
Also I wonder if anyone has fished over a Plauditus dubius hatch, and what those little devils look like. They seem like another candidate for the summer olives we've been discussing.
PS, the shape of the head can be helpful placing the centroptilum/procloeon things in a field ID. At the moment, I don't remember which one looks which way, but maybe some resourceful souls here can figure it out with this prompt.
Family name: Baetidae
Scientific name: Plauditus dubius
Previously know as: Baetis dubius, Cloe dubia, Cloeon chlorops, Cloeon dubium, Pseudocloeon chlorops, Pseudocloeon dubium
Common name: Little Slatewinged Brown Quill, Bluewinged Olive
Locality: E, M, W
CAN Regions: NE,NW
MEX Regions:
USA Regions: FN,NE,SE
Cent. Amer. Countries:
CAN Provinces: AB, MB, NB, NS, ON, QC, SK.
MEX States:
USA States: AL,AR,CT,FL,GA,IA,ID,IL,IN,KY,ME,MI,MN,MO,MS,MT,NC,NE, NY,OK,OR,PA,SC,TN,TX,VA,WI,WV.
Habitat:
Voltinism:
Emergence (begin) date: early-Jun
Emergence (end) date: mid-Jul
Emergence time of day:
Spinner fall time of day:
Nymph minimum length: 3 mm.
Nymph maximum length: 5 mm.
Nymph identification keys: tergites 3-4, 8-10 pale
Nymph body description: brownish olive w/abdominal segments 3,4,8,9,10 paler
Nymph legs: pale olive
Nymph gills:
Nymph tusks:
Nymph tails: 2, pale olive w/banding at middle
Dun minimum length: 4 mm.
Dun maximum length: 4 mm.
Dun identification keys:
Dun body description: light olive to dark brown
Dun wings: light to medium gray
Dun legs: pale olive gray
Dun tails: 2, pale gray
Spinner minimum length: 3 mm.
Spinner maximum length: 4 mm.
Spinner identification keys: eyes reddish-brown
Spinner body description: thorax light brown, abdominal segments 2-6 whitish, 7-10 yellowish brown
Spinner wings: fore wings w/detached intercalary veins, hind wings absent
Spinner legs: (male) fore femora pale reddish brown
Spinner tails: 2,
I know there is a "dubious" joke somewhere in all this, but I haven't hit upon it yet.
Edmunds reported back in the 70's that he was certain the practice was dubious...
PS, the shape of the head can be helpful placing the centroptilum/procloeon things in a field ID. At the moment, I don't remember which one looks which way, but maybe some resourceful souls here can figure it out with this prompt.
In terms of a whole series of characters the type species of the genus Procloeon is close to the Pennulatum Group, which until now has been assigned to the genus Centroptilum; therefore we believe it makes sense to unite in a single subgenus Procloeon and the Pennulatum Group and expand the diagnosis of this subgenus with new characters. McCafferty and Waltz (1990) also include the Pennulatum Group in Procloeon, but treat Procloeon as a genus and more broadly than we do, including in it all of Cloeon s. l. except for Cloeon s. str., Centroptilum, and Pseudocentroptiloides.
Though I have found P. rivulare in NY listings, information regarding size shows it to be a substantially smaller critter. Also, though similarly colored and marked, I don't think their hind wings are this severely slim.. I know Taxon has a copy of TBOM, so perhaps he'll read this and comment.
... I do think that Procloeon seems more likely than Centroptilum.
Lloyd - I'm leaning towards your initially mentioned possibility of P. quaesitum over size and hind wing characters. Would you mind sharing why you think Traver's descriptions were inconclusive?
As to pennulatum, the hind wing is substantially different from Jason's specimen. See Lowen & Flannagan (1990).
How about if we just agree to "probably Procloeon" and call it a night? ;)