The lid is a standard size pickle jar lid, to give you scale. This was a good sized "blue wing olive" - but not the usual I'm used to seeing as it had three tails. It was also fairly large, a solid #16 or slightly larger. The dun wings were, as you can see, pretty large as well. Can you precisely identify this one? And, turning over rocks revealed a number of immature nymphs. This one, however, seemed to be ready-to-go with a wing case that was looking like it was darkening. I was thinking Ephemerella, but it doesn't seem elongated enough and had more pronounced gills than I'd have expected based on images I've seen. The width of the head, pronounced eyes, and the pronounced gills now have me thinking it is some sort of Epeorus (yellow quill) - and there were in fact good sized yellow mayflies coming off at about a size 14 that I was thinking may very well be yellow quills. So, how about this nymph?
Hi Jim- I believe your winged mayfly to be of family Ephemerellidae and of genus Drunella, and your mayfly nymph to be of family Heptageniidae, not genus Epeorus as they have only 2 tails, but rather, Rhithrogena robusta. Incidentally, good on you for taking the pickle jar lid.
Drunella, huh? So, these were not BWOs of some sort, but rather small, lesser green drakes? I'd guess, for these western waters and the size of this one, and given some photos I just looked up, Drunella flavilinea? Very interesting! Thank you! Aha, yes, I see that Epeorus indeed have just two tails, I wasn't paying close enough attention. And, the photo I got matches well with this one from Bob Henricks (http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]) on Flickr (man, this guy has a lot of bug photos, it's pretty apparent he has a bunch of aquariums full of insects, and he's nice too, having set the rights on the images so they can be used in my online hatch charts): Thanks Taxon, cheers.
I was just reading about Drunella the other day. I thought that flavs didn't really start coming off until a little later into summer? Could it be drunella doddsii?
That is possible, as the following Drunella species are known to be present in Clallam County: Drunella coloradensis Boulder Cr Drunella coloradensis Boundary Cr Drunella coloradensis Ennis Cr Drunella coloradensis Kugel Cr Drunella coloradensis Morse Cr Drunella coloradensis South Branch Little R Drunella doddsi Boundary Cr Drunella doddsi Cook Cr Drunella doddsi Cool Cr Drunella doddsi Couger Cr Drunella doddsi Deep Lake Cr Drunella doddsi Dungeness R Drunella doddsi Jimmy Come Lately Cr Drunella doddsi Lake Sutherland Drunella doddsi Morse Cr Drunella doddsi Mud Cr Drunella doddsi Salt Cr Drunella doddsi South Branch Ellen Cr Drunella doddsi South Branch Little R Drunella doddsi South Fork Soleduck Cr Drunella doddsi Steamboat Cr Drunella doddsi Upper Deep Cr Drunella flavilinea Morse Cr Drunella flavilinea Soleduck R Drunella grandis Dungeness R Drunella grandis East Fork Dickey R Drunella grandis Morse Cr Drunella spinifera Boulder Cr Drunella spinifera Ellen Cr Drunella spinifera Ennis Cr trib Drunella spinifera Indian Cr Drunella spinifera Lake Deep Cr Drunella spinifera Mud Cr Drunella spinifera Soleduck R Drunella spinifera South Branch Little R
Ok, I ascertain that there's 2 of the above Drunellas (doddsi and grandis) in the Dungeness R. Do those have "common" names that might ring a bell? I plan to be fishing the upper river this summer. I think I know my pickle jar lids, though. From the blue rim, I'd say that was from a Vlasic brand pickle jar.
I believe doddsi are usually called lesser green drakes, while grandis are simply called western green drakes. Yes, Vlasic
Hi Jim- In their book, Western Mayfly Hatches, Rick Hafele and Dave Hughes refer to them thusly: Greater Drunella (Western Green Drakes) D. grandis, D. doddsi (now D. doddsii) , D. spinifera Smaller Drunella (Flavs, Lesser Green Drakes) D. flavilinea, D. coloradensis
Thanks Robert. I need to pick up a copy of that book. And maybe any other field guides to Western bugs and hatches. But today is a surf day. gotta go!
