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.
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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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Higherroad has attached this picture to aid in identification. The message is below.
Higherroad
Posts: 5
Posts: 5
Higherroad on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 2:46 pm EDT
I hope to ID this nymph. I believe it's Maccaffertium Ithaca Light Cahill. The size was about a #16. Photographed in April in SE USA.
Entoman on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 3:58 pm EDT
Hi Higherroad,
Welcome to the forum. That is a nymph from an intirely different family. It is an ephemerellid, probably in the genus Ephemerella.
Welcome to the forum. That is a nymph from an intirely different family. It is an ephemerellid, probably in the genus Ephemerella.
"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
Higherroad
Posts: 5
Posts: 5
Higherroad on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 4:39 pm EDT
Then a Hendrickson or Sulphur perhaps? I've never seen sulphurs on this stream though.
Wbranch on May 5, 2014May 5th, 2014, 5:14 pm EDT
It is absolutely not a Hendrickson. If you Google "Hendrickson nymph images" or "Ephemerella subvaria images" you will get a hit with tons of high quality pictures of the insect in question.
Here is a link that shows color variations among two nymphs of the same genus. The light colored nymph of dorothea does resemble your nymph picture. However I'm not a bug guy, just an avid fly fisher, so I don't differentiate very astutely about how many tails or how their sex organs look under a microscope because the trout don't really care.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/882430/bgpage
Here is a link that shows color variations among two nymphs of the same genus. The light colored nymph of dorothea does resemble your nymph picture. However I'm not a bug guy, just an avid fly fisher, so I don't differentiate very astutely about how many tails or how their sex organs look under a microscope because the trout don't really care.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/882430/bgpage
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Entoman on May 6, 2014May 6th, 2014, 2:52 pm EDT
I think you're on the right track, Mack. Nice explanation about the synonymy.
"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
Entoman on May 6, 2014May 6th, 2014, 8:47 pm EDT
Yeah, I was thinking about the possibility of the carolina form since synonymized with serrata. The prominent tubercles on the abdominal segs (particularly the ninth) and southern location got me to speculate, but the more I thought about it the more the idea seemed unlikely.
"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
Entoman on May 7, 2014May 7th, 2014, 5:59 am EDT
This isn't E. dorothea dorothea though. That species doesn't have tubercles projecting beyond the posterior edges of the abdominal segments.
"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
Crepuscular on May 7, 2014May 7th, 2014, 5:42 pm EDT
I love these Ephemerellid threads!
Entoman on May 7, 2014May 7th, 2014, 7:00 pm EDT
Me too!
BTW, it is a Sulfur Higherroad. If no other reason than it happens to be sulfur colored. ;) I can't imagine the dun being any other color from this nymph. The Sulfurs up in Spence's country are green (remember that one you posted a few years back that fooled me?). These ephemerellids are all over the color wheel, even in the same species.
BTW, it is a Sulfur Higherroad. If no other reason than it happens to be sulfur colored. ;) I can't imagine the dun being any other color from this nymph. The Sulfurs up in Spence's country are green (remember that one you posted a few years back that fooled me?). These ephemerellids are all over the color wheel, even in the same species.
"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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