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Lateral view of a Male Baetis (Baetidae) (Blue-Winged Olive) Mayfly Dun from Mystery Creek #43 in New York
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.

Case view of a Pycnopsyche guttifera (Limnephilidae) (Great Autumn Brown Sedge) Caddisfly Larva from the Yakima River in Washington
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.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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.

Wbranch
Wbranch's profile picture
York & Starlight PA

Posts: 2635
Wbranch on Apr 12, 2015April 12th, 2015, 1:35 pm EDT
I found this helpful web site by accident this afternoon while researching the body color of the Grannom found on the Little Juniata. The site lists the Latin name and I think the colloquial name. Then it goes on to provide the body and wing colors and the names of common fly patterns that represent that insect and it even provides data on how to fish the fly.

Then if you scroll down you can select another insect to find data on it.

http://www.west-fly-fishing.com/entomology/entomology.shtml
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Planettrout
Planettrout's profile picture
Los Angeles, CA / Pullman, WA

Posts: 53
Planettrout on Apr 14, 2015April 14th, 2015, 3:57 am EDT
Wbranch,

Westfly, along with this site, has been one of my go-to resources for bugs and patterns to match them with, for a very long time.It is the most comprehensive site for for Western Fly Fishing that I have found. Another site I frequent is Steve Schalla's "Fly Fishing The Sierra", which has just about everything one would want to know about visiting and fishing that part of CA:

http://stevenojai.tripod.com/homepage.htm


PT/TB
Daughter to Father: "How many arms do you have, how many fly rods do you need?"

http://planettrout.wordpress.com/

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