Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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Nymphs of this species were fairly common in late-winter kick net samples from the upper Yakima River. Although I could not find a key to species of Zapada nymphs, a revision of the Nemouridae family by Baumann (1975) includes the following helpful sentence: "2 cervical gills on each side of midline, 1 arising inside and 1 outside of lateral cervical sclerites, usually single and elongate, sometimes constricted but with 3 or 4 branches arising beyond gill base in Zapada cinctipes." This specimen clearly has the branches and is within the range of that species.
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Sayfu
Posts: 560
Posts: 560
Sayfu on Aug 3, 2012August 3rd, 2012, 12:14 pm EDT
Forgot how to best use this thing. I haven't posted in sometime now. I just bought a new ID book by David Hughes. In it he says that ALL STONE FLIES crawl out to emerge. When you see what looks like stones emerging on the water's surface like I have seen yellow sallies I thought were emerging on the waters surface...NO, it is egg layers returning, that you did not see returning to the water. True, or False.
Taxon on Aug 3, 2012August 3rd, 2012, 12:53 pm EDT
Hi Sayfu,
Although I don't actually know if ALL stoneflies crawl out to emerge, certainly MOST of them do. However, there is/are usually exception(s) to any rule (perhaps even this one), so terms like (all, always, never, none) are best avoided.
Although I don't actually know if ALL stoneflies crawl out to emerge, certainly MOST of them do. However, there is/are usually exception(s) to any rule (perhaps even this one), so terms like (all, always, never, none) are best avoided.
Entoman on Aug 3, 2012August 3rd, 2012, 1:43 pm EDT
Hi Jere,
Good to hear from you! How's fishing been?
Taxon is absolutely right about absolutes.:) If that is what Dave Hughes wrote, I'm afraid I have to disagree. There is ample evidence that some perlodids (at least in the West) are capable of aquatic emergence. I'm on the road so my ability to search for you is limited, but I remember even Dave's co-author, entomologist Rick Hafele, has mentioned this phenomenon several times in his writings. Perhaps it just slipped through the editing process... Anyway, I also seem to remember we discussed this at length in another thread, so perhaps somebody can google it up and link it. I'd like to know what I said before I contradict myself...:)
Good to hear from you! How's fishing been?
Taxon is absolutely right about absolutes.:) If that is what Dave Hughes wrote, I'm afraid I have to disagree. There is ample evidence that some perlodids (at least in the West) are capable of aquatic emergence. I'm on the road so my ability to search for you is limited, but I remember even Dave's co-author, entomologist Rick Hafele, has mentioned this phenomenon several times in his writings. Perhaps it just slipped through the editing process... Anyway, I also seem to remember we discussed this at length in another thread, so perhaps somebody can google it up and link it. I'd like to know what I said before I contradict myself...:)
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Sayfu
Posts: 560
Posts: 560
Sayfu on Aug 4, 2012August 4th, 2012, 8:27 am EDT
We did discuss it, and I was interested to know what you thought because Hughes was adamant about stones not emerging out on the water. Fishing has been very poor. I focused on a particular lake this Summer because of all the high water coming from the SF of the Snake due to irrigation needs. We had a drowning the other day...driftboat capsized with a man and his wife in the boat, and the wife drowned. I'm too old anymore to put up with the heat, and have to row in high water especially when we can get substantial winds. It will be a Fall fishery for me this year.
Entoman on Aug 5, 2012August 5th, 2012, 12:25 pm EDT
Yeah, I was in Idaho during the freak June storms that blew everything out, so I focused on lakes and spring creeks.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
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