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3. Another Anthopotamus

Pretty sure this is Anthopotamus verticis. I guess it could be myops. But it looks like there are some dark cross veins , so of course, I'll defer to the experts. It was on the door of my office this morning.

This Golden Drake female spinner is a good example of specimens that straddle the lines. Besides the cross veins, the eyes also look to rule out myops (too big). But it is fairly large and it almost has both the head stripe and large lateral spots on the abdomen that could put it at the edge of distinctus variability. However, I think you are correct in your assessment that this is verticus.

Notice the leg markings on this specimen vs. your specimen of the female distinctus and the male specimen of verticus on the other thread. I'm not aware of any description pointing out the significance of this but it's interesting.

The specific leg markings seen in Eric's (presumed) verticis specimens (the female here and the male in the related thread) are described by various authors--for example, in the descriptions of synonym diaphanus by Needham (1908) and Argo (1927) and the descriptions of synonym walkeri by Ide (1935). Perhaps the best and most detailed match for these markings is found in Ide's description of the male imago:



Here's a curious side note: McCafferty and Meyer (2007) report finding specimens of this species (A. verticis) taken from the Upper Truckee River in California (from a CA collection borrowed from the Illinois Natural History Survey).

Thanks for the detail! Yes, I remember seeing them in descriptions. By "significance" I meant for diagnostic purposes. Much like the head and pronotal stripe, they're mentioned (and they seem to be reasonably dependable), but not necessarily as diagnostic as the other characters we've been discussing? That's what I was musing about anyway...

Upper Truckee? Preposterously amazing! :) If it weren't for the quality of the source you quoted, I'd have trouble keeping my right eyebrow down. :) A lot of anglers think of the tumbling freestone water above town as the Upper Truckee, but I'm pretty sure the paper is referring to the actual U. Truckee (among other names), which is above the lake. It's pretty much off the angler radar system due to being entirely closed until the heat of Summer and even then, its access is severely restricted because of the golf course operation. It's small water and pretty cold, but there is a fair amount of sandy alluvial habitat just above where it enters the lake. You would think they'd prefer the bigger, warmer water on the Nevada reaches. Perhaps they are there as well. I believe there are other reports of this species in the West, though they don't come to mind right now. Montana maybe?

BTW - the Upper Truckee should not be confused with the Little Truckee that meets the main stem at Boca. This is well downstream from town at the end of the special reg. section.