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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.
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Millcreek has attached these 2 pictures to aid in identification. The message is below.
Cases about 9 mm.
Pupae about 7-8  mm.
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Nov 23, 2015November 23rd, 2015, 5:45 am EST
Thought I'd put these up in case anybody wanted to look at them. They're from this year, around August. The cases were found on medium to large cobbles in fairly calm areas.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein
PaulRoberts
PaulRoberts's profile picture
Colorado

Posts: 1776
PaulRoberts on Nov 23, 2015November 23rd, 2015, 7:41 am EST
Wow! Simply gorgeous.
Crepuscular
Crepuscular's profile picture
Boiling Springs, PA

Posts: 920
Crepuscular on Nov 23, 2015November 23rd, 2015, 7:48 am EST
Nice Mark.I've never seen that one here in PA only Psilotreta. Pretty sure we don't have the genus.
Millcreek
Healdsburg, CA

Posts: 344
Millcreek on Nov 24, 2015November 24th, 2015, 5:13 am EST
Paul,

Thanks. I saw these and couldn't resist the opportunity to record the different pupal stages.

Eric,

I'm sure you don't have the genus in PA. There are two species in the U.S. from what I understand. M. nobsca from Texas and M. flexuosa from California, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.

Edit: A further look at range maps shows M. flexuosa in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Vermont and Ontario. And that's just as far as the U.S. and Canada are concerned, looks like it's common in Central and South America as well.
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
-Albert Einstein

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