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3. Mystery Creek # 42

This caddis species was dancing high over the stream, spaced a foot or two apart across most of its width, very much like Ephemera mayfly spinners but with more side-to-side motion mixed in. There were more than enough to get the trout interested, but I wasn't able to stick around until they fell on the water (if they did at all).

This one may look a bit strange, because one of her main wings came off in my container.

The adult stoneflies of this family look surprisingly normal given the strange shape of the nymphs. I tried to identify it beyond family level 15 years after collecting it, based on my photos, which are not ideal. It's difficult even to tell the gender for sure because I don't have a good picture of the terminalia, but the body size suggests it's a male, and the species ranges suggest either Peltoperla arcuata or a male Tallaperla maria. One distinctive feature of the original description of this species is that the antennae are paler for a short distance beyond the first two thick, dark segments. That can be seen on this specimen and on a specimen on BugGuide identified as Tallaperla maria.

I've seen Ephemerella invaria with green egg sacs and Ephemerella subvaria with yellow one. This one seems too large for dorothea. So what is it? I'm not sure. Many females of this species were gathered in tight clouds to lay their eggs over the riffles in a mid-sized Pocono stream right at dusk. It would have been a fishable spinner fall if I'd stuck around to wait for them.

This one has a neat iridescent sheen to its wings. See the discussion for details on this fly's tentative ID.