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.
My Ephemerellidae keys are pretty much garbage when it comes to identifying female duns. I'm wondering if anybody has any insight on this one based on personal experience.
There can't be all that many tiny olive Ephemerellids hatching in September. My tentative guess would be Serratella.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Troutnut on Oct 4, 2006October 4th, 2006, 10:08 am
OK, I'll move it there for now. What makes you sure?
I looked through all the scientific papers I have on the likely species again and can't find anything useful. I really wish they described the females and the duns more often.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
Take a look at Fauceglia p. 67. It’s the best photo I’ve found of a Attenella female dun. Incidentally, I hadn’t yet discovered that photo when I offered the earlier opinion, but that reinforced my opinion.
In any event, there are a number of factors, which taken together, convinced me:
- dorsal pointed finger-like meso-thoractic projection
- hind wing costal projection
- body coloration
- size
- early Sep. emergence
- presence in NY