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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.

Dorsal view of a Amphizoa (Amphizoidae) Beetle Larva from Sears Creek in Washington
This is the first of it's family I've seen, collected from a tiny, fishless stream in the Cascades. The three species of this genus all live in the Northwest and are predators that primarily eat stonefly nymphs Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019).
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.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or support the project for an enhanced experience here.

This topic is about the Arthropod Class Crustacea-Malacostraca

Crustaceans are classified as one of those inconvenient intermediate taxonomic levels, the subphylum. The varieties of interest to trout anglers are in the class Malacostraca.

It contains the orders of scuds (Amphipoda), sowbugs (Isopoda), opossum or mysis shrimp (Mysida), and crayish (Decapoda). Crayfish and scuds are both extremely important trout prey.

Example specimens

DMM
Posts: 34
DMM on Nov 29, 2006November 29th, 2006, 2:46 pm EST
Malacostraca is a class but Crustacea is a subphylum
David
Troutnut
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Bellevue, WA

Posts: 2758
Troutnut on Nov 30, 2006November 30th, 2006, 5:38 pm EST
Yeah, I mention that on this page.

I decided not to include all the sub-this and infra-that taxonomic levels on this site and stick to the ones covered in high school biology, because it makes the navigation much easier and it's sufficient for anglers' purposes.

For the rare cases in which some well-known taxon falls on a more obscure level (like crustaceans, damselflies, and dragonflies), I've appended or prepended it to the listed taxon with a hyphen and explained the details in the corresponding description. It's not the most graceful system but it works.
Jason Neuswanger, Ph.D.
Troutnut and salmonid ecologist
DMM
Posts: 34
DMM on Dec 1, 2006December 1st, 2006, 2:40 am EST
Sorry about that, I guess I missed that explanation.
David

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