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3. Mayfly from spring creek

ID please! Fish were hitting these all day. I'm in the northeast.

AI514-

Nice photo. My guess would be Paraleptophlebia, perhaps P. adoptiva.

Good picture ,fine quality I agree. (Adoptiva.)

john

Nice picture -- that's a striking mayfly!

I'm not so sure about P. adoptiva. All of those I've caught (at least, all I think were that species) had unmarked slate gray wings without such dark veins.

Leptophlebiidae does seem right. I'm really busy now or I would try to narrow it down more.

Al......

Very nice photo........ I need a camera!

Taxon.....


Jason is questioning you ???.... LOL........
Is the 'honeymoon over' ????? Hmmmmm
Just stirring the pot ! LOL
John.....

Okay, now that I've got a little more time to confirm my instinct that it just doesn't quite "look" like Paraleptophlebia, I checked Arbona's book on Mayflies to verify one of the characteristics that was bugging me: the middle tail is shorter than the outer ones. That means Leptophlebia rather than Paraleptophlebia. (Unless it's some more obscure genus in that family like Choroterpes, about which I have no identification information handy.)

Mea culpa, Leptophlebia makes sense.

Looking at the photo of Jason's L.cupida( the old 'Blasturus cupidas, love that name, why did they change it)........
.... shouldn't the eyes and legs be 'blackish' not brown?
.....wings... they look more 'bluish gray than 'grayish brown'
@ Ref: 'Matching the Hatch', E. Schwiebert,Jr., pg.41,48.
* I see the middle tail is shorter( may be broken ?)
** It just doesn't seem that the colors( noted above) are correct!

Just asking...

Yeah, I kind of doubt it's L. cupida too. But there are many other species of Leptophlebia. That's why I'd like to catch some to photograph for my site; they're probably a species I don't have yet.

NY Leptophlebia are L. bradleyi, L. cupida, L. johnsoni, and L. nebulosa. Absence of dark forelegs probably eliminates L. cupida. Based on wing venation and tail markings, it could be L. johnsoni, but who knows.

Taxon..... I was counting on you to know! ..........Rats!
OK..... I feel a little better!

Cheers!

It's either L. cupida or L. nebulosa. Apparently L. johnsoni has a middle tail as long as or longer than the outer tail. L. bradleyi is ruled out by the size and the depth of the median notch on abdominal segment 9 on my female spinner. I think the apparent darkness of the legs may just depend on the lighting, because my specimens do have darker fore legs.

Unfortunately I can't tell which of these two species it is, because the darn key for female spinners requires that I have a ball of eggs to tell them apart.

Here are the two specimens, both females, that I collected after going to this same creek a couple days after Al514:

http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/710
http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/711