Bug ID?

[The Patriot]

Last night I went searching in vain for more sulphurs at dusk. No joy.... too hot? The water seemed a tad higher than Saturday, did they release?

Anyway.... right at dark, as I was leaving, I saw some very light pale creamy spinners. I captured one and checked it out. It definitely wasn't a sulphur (E. Invaria or Dorothea). Too big, and too light. Not a hint of orange or yellow. About a 14.

It didn't look like E. Vitreous; it was pale, pale cream throughout, including it's dorsal surface. Not a hint of yellow, orange, pink, or rust. Pale, pale cream.

And it didn't look like a Cahill. (Stenonema/Stenocron Ithica, Canadense, Interpunctatum, mediopuntatum, or modestum et al). It lacked the brown cast to its thorax, characteristic of that family. It was pure pale creamy white.

It looked too small and pale to be a Yellow Drake (Ephemera Varia)

Could it still be Gray Fox (S. Fuscum), this late? Any educated guesses?

If that's a Gray Fox, then how anyone can say that March Browns (S. Vicarium) and Gray Foxes are actually the same bug is totally beyond me.... they look nothing alike!

[steve B]

3 weight,
could it have been a crane fly? if not you have got me !unless it is a color variation of Vitreus, the only light colored small mayflies are the Leucrocuta- but they hatch much later and are more like 16's to 20's. Did you notice how amny tails it had? was the hind wing large or small?


Steve

[The Patriot]

Steve,

Definitely, definitely not a crane fly. I have seen lots and lots of those, and know exactly what they look like. No, this was absolutely a mayfly imago.

I'm also familiar with the small summer stenos you mention. Leucrocuta..... this was definitely too large to be one of those....

One of its tails was broken, so I couldn't tell for sure wether there were two or three. And I didn't notice any hind wing at all..... not that there was none, just that I didn't make particular note one way or the other.

I think it must have either been a Vitreous devoid of its usual darker dorsal surface, a Gray Fox, or a Cahill subspecies. But like I said, if that's a Gray Fox, then the experts who want to reclassify S. Fuscum as a variation of S. Vicarium are all wet in my opinion! :wink: :D

It very well could have been a Light Cahill Steno. It just didn't seem to look like many of the Cahills I have captured in the past.

Thanks for your reply.

Jim

[steve B]

Jim,
The experts( aquatic entamologists) have muddied the taxonomy of the mayflies so much in the past few years it is crazy. a few years ago when it became easier to do, they began to use genetic matching to classify the bugs. That is why the Baetis family has changed so much in the last 5 or 6 years as have others. Stenonemas became stenocron or leucrocutas and so forth. That is the one reason taht even knowing the latin names and how to key out most all of the species , I do not waste the time when fishing, if it is a yellow fly size 12 I tie on a yellow emerger, sparkle dune or Parachute. The one stage of the mayfly hatch I will spend soem time invetsigating is the spinners( imago) . They can be very diiferent form the Duns( subimago) so I like to catch one or two. I have in the last 8 ro 10 years gone form a strick imitation fisher to a more middle veiw of equil combination of fly/presentation. I know some guys have said they catch fish with just about any fly if the presentation is good , but I think yopu will catch even mor eif the fly is close to not only size but - shape % color. You are most likley correct that it is a color variation of a Vitreous.

Steve