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2. Get Bugs Identified
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3. Paralep adoptiva vs. E. pluralis

Guys;

A guy on another forum I frequent posted some pics from this past weekends outing up to the catskills. in one of the pics, he identified a a mayfly that landed on his flyrod as a quill gordon dun. To me, it looks more like a blue quill. Both species look pretty similar and are hard to tell apart to my untrained eye. Any advice on iding these 2 that is more obvious, perhaps say, a big diff. in size or something?

Thanks alot,
P.S. heres a pic of the bug!

Adirman

Siphlonurus?

I agree with Paul. It's probably S. quebecensis (Gray Drake). They are the by far the most common eastern species and hatch earlier. Ask your friend if it had V's on each belly segment, Adir. If so, you have your ID.

Seems late for E. pleuralis, and much different habitat too. E. pleuralis can be similarly colored to freshly emerged Siphlonurus, as well as two-tailed. At first glance I could see how they might be confused. The dun in the image is quite dark and probably had darkened.

Thanks guys, for the help but im sure he didn't look under the belly based on what he said in his post. But based on what your saying Entoman, the v's on the underbelly segments is a good way to differentiate the 2?
Also, Brookyman, whats that with the face shape thing?

Most appreciative,

Adirman

No, a good way to differentiate from other Siphlonurus species. There are other possibilities besides quebecensis. Epeorus species look quite different with their long legs and different body conformation. Besides very obvious hind wing and tail count differences, Paraleptophlebia species look quite different as well.

Siphlo is a "swimmer", long in abdomen, rounder in head. Epeorus is a "clinger", shorter in ab, flatter more sprawled across legs, wider in head.

The basic Swimmer, Crawler, Clinger are good general body plan descriptions.

Yes, I see your point Brookyman.

Thanks all,

Adirman

Entoman;

Went to the insect encyclopedia section and looked up siphlonurus dun pics. They got a real nice pic, I think on page 2, of the v-shaped color pattern you were referring to for the gray drakes.


Thanks for the insight,

Adirman

You're welcome, Adirman. Again, not all species of Gray Drakes (Siphlonurus) have those. I brought that character up as a way for you to determine the species, not as a way to separate it from the genera you mentioned. Both of those were already eliminated by other character differences. Sorry for not being clearer about this in my previous posts.

No problem, this has been a great thread as Ive learned a lot from you guys!!