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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It's only barely visible in one of my pictures, but I confirmed under the microscope that this one has a prosternal horn and the antennae are mid-way between the eyes and front of the head capsule.
I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.
The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.
Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
I'm calling this one Pycnopsyche, but it's a bit perplexing. It seems to key definitively to at least Couplet 8 of the Key to Genera of Limnephilidae Larvae. That narrows it down to three genera, and the case seems wrong for the other two. The case looks right for Pycnopsyche, and it fits one of the key characteristics: "Abdominal sternum II without chloride epithelium and abdominal segment IX with only single seta on each side of dorsal sclerite." However, the characteristic "metanotal sa1 sclerites not fused, although often contiguous" does not seem to fit well. Those sclerites sure look fused to me, although I can make out a thin groove in the touching halves in the anterior half under the microscope. Perhaps this is a regional variation.
The only species of Pycnopsyche documented in Washington state is Pycnopsyche guttifera, and the colors and markings around the head of this specimen seem to match very well a specimen of that species from Massachusetts on Bugguide. So I am placing it in that species for now.
Whatever species this is, I photographed another specimen of seemingly the same species from the same spot a couple months later.
Troutnut is a project started in 2003 by salmonid ecologist Jason "Troutnut" Neuswanger to help anglers and
fly tyers unabashedly embrace the entomological side of the sport. Learn more about Troutnut or
support the project for an enhanced experience here.
By Dneuswanger on August 21st, 2014
Today was “Take-Your-Dads-To-Work” Day for Jason, as both Markus Vayndorf (Jason’s father-in-law) and I accompanied Jason on a day trip to the Chena River a few miles northeast of Fairbanks. We were accompanied by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist Bill Carter, who hoped to learn enough about Jason’s underwater video techniques to employ them this fall in a study of sheefish on the Selawik River in remote northwestern Alaska.
We launched our borrowed 18-foot Jon boat off a gravel bar in the Chena River around noon and motored downstream about a mile to a large logjam where Jason had filmed juvenile Chinook salmon during his dissertation project. The salmon fry were not in typical locations, but I finally located a small group on the back side of the logjam. Markus (right) and I (left) assembled the calibration frame in the bow; then Jason readied the Go-Pro camera array as Bill (in stern) and I lowered the calibration frame into the water.
Eventually we were able to obtain some underwater video while observing the juvenile salmon with a remote monitor onboard (some of Jason’s new gadgetry). Bill learned what he needed to know. Coincidentally, Bill and his wife had attended Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin in the late 1980s—a decade after my wife, Sandy, and I graduated from there. I enjoyed visiting with Bill about our common beginnings in the field of fisheries.
We launched our borrowed 18-foot Jon boat off a gravel bar in the Chena River around noon and motored downstream about a mile to a large logjam where Jason had filmed juvenile Chinook salmon during his dissertation project. The salmon fry were not in typical locations, but I finally located a small group on the back side of the logjam. Markus (right) and I (left) assembled the calibration frame in the bow; then Jason readied the Go-Pro camera array as Bill (in stern) and I lowered the calibration frame into the water.
Eventually we were able to obtain some underwater video while observing the juvenile salmon with a remote monitor onboard (some of Jason’s new gadgetry). Bill learned what he needed to know. Coincidentally, Bill and his wife had attended Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin in the late 1980s—a decade after my wife, Sandy, and I graduated from there. I enjoyed visiting with Bill about our common beginnings in the field of fisheries.
Photos by Troutnut from the Chena River in Alaska
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Jan 29, 2016
by Martinlf
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