insect ID

B

buckbarrett

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May 29, 2007
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I picked this insect off my shoulder while I was catching nothing but trying everything. Threw it in and kablam. But, I cant find a pattern or a reference. Western PA. Sorry I have no picture.
About a size 14 hook
Orange body, thin
Uplifting tail end with two long hairlike tailpieces
Of course 3 pair of legs all orange
Large yellow wings (comparatively)
 
Buck,
Saw the same bug on Tues. @ the Pirates/Mets game. landed on the seat in front of me. Same description, but with an orange egg sac. reminded me of a sulper, but at this time of year and on the three rivers? Also saw a similiar insect last year this time on the Yough while fishing for smallies, they were emerging from a set of riffles.
JH
 
Could be a "Cahill" based on the description.
 
FFJ,

When you are near warm waters where :sulfur like: bugs are hatching, they can appear all year long during the warm water times.

At the warm waters on the susky at the Bruner Island power plant sulfurs hatch in January. Water temp is a tepid 85 degrees.

Because mayfly life cycles are based on thermal units (a given period of warm tremps during the nymphal life before hatching), the species can vary their emergence time to the point that over a period of year they come off for extended periods.

Also, warm water species are much more diverse than cool water species.

With typical freestone trout streams, the mayfly emergence is more predictable because of the more stable winter, spring, summer , fall seasons and temperatures related to them.

Maurice
 
I did not know that sulfurs hatched all year in some environments, but did you note this from the description: "yellow wings." I thought true sulfurs had blue wings.
 
Yes I did Jack, I was just explaining why someone may be confused seeing a yellowish mayfly in the late summer.

as for the yellow wings, we had them coming off at our meeting last week. We thought perhaps it was the potomanthus but it seemed kinda small compared to the ones on Penns....but don't they all look smaller than on Penns?
 
Maurice doesn't a potamanthus have 3 tails? The description above stated it only had 2 but other than that I agree thats what it sounds like.
 
Here's a nice picture of a potamanthus
http://www.visualsunlimited.com/browse/vu430/vu430235.html
 
Padraic wrote:
Here's a nice picture of a potamanthus
http://www.visualsunlimited.com/browse/vu430/vu430235.html
Click to expand...

Fish can't count, but I can, that is three tails there. :-D
 
The ones I saw had three tails....FWIW I never said they were the same only that they had yellow wings.

I would venture to say that the original posters fly could have been a cahill. In June and july some very yellow ones come off in a lot of places.
 
I just guessed cahill because that's what I call the size 14 yellow/orange flies that have been coming off the Yough and I think they are 2-tailed. I thought I read once that the term "cahill" refers to a fly pattern, not a bug species per se. The term may be applied in one location to one species and in another to a different species altogether.

I propose that yellowish bugs go the way of the BWO. Call them all sulfurs and then we can say that creamy sulfurs came off last night or the orange sulfurs were hatching early or the blue-winged sulfurs are getting underway, or that the pale sulfurs are almost over below the bridge.
 
They definetly had 2 tails. The two wings were 3 times the size of the body which was very orange. Cahill was a mans name wasnt it? I'm gonna guess its a terrestrial . When I threw it in a brown came up and the largest rainbow I have seen, but a little guy came up and snagged it. I'm making up my own pattern.
 
Jack...see what happens when we ***-U-ME it was a mayfly? :lol:

Buck,
I understand Cahill was a mans name who developed a fly to match the hatch of the Stenonema canendesis (light cahill). There are many variations of color with this fly (Cream, yellow, even pink) But the characteristics remain the same, barred legs, mottled wings, two tails and a uniformed colored abdomen. Sometimes the thorax will be of slight contrast.

I remember one I picked up on Penns that had chartreuse wings, a yellow abdomen and a rose colored thorax. Pertiest fly I ever done seen.

I never would have thought to ask...was it a mayfly?

If you try to immitate it with a tie, keep the wings just 1-1.5 times the body size or you will have a heck of a time casting it.

Maurice
 
I live about 100 yards from the large beaver river. I deliver papers in the morning so am up early to do so. I see many mayfly looking insects on cars and flying about. I've been meaning to take pictures of them to get an ID. But just as you described. On a warm waterway and I see them early in the morning just about every day. I've seen them pretty thick at night in the lights of the local gas station. If I can, I'll take some pics to show, I've seen a few different ones. I'm new at this whole bug ID thing so this might be fun for you pro's out there.
 
IT sounds like it is probably a yellow cahill. As for Sulphurs hatching at different times of the year, there is a January Sulphur hatch on many limestone streams, but it is not the same as the sulphurs in May.
 
I believe I saw the same insect referenced while at the Steeler game last night. Couldn't get a great look at it, but it was definately orange. It sounds much like what's been described.
 
flyfishermanj wrote:
Buck,
Saw the same bug on Tues. @ the Pirates/Mets game. landed on the seat in front of me. Same description, but with an orange egg sac. reminded me of a sulper, but at this time of year and on the three rivers?
Click to expand...

We used to get huge mayfly accumulations on the sides of the buildings when I worked on the north side of Pittsburgh. Those rivers actually throw off a ton of bugs.

Tom,
It was a mayfly, I've seen crane flies before and it wasn't one.
Click to expand...

Ok, Buck never said it was a mayfly so I thought I'd ask...
 
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