Trico Dun?

[outsider]

While fishing the Tulpehocken Creek this morning, I scooped up a mayfly dun. The wings were very dark colored, as was the body, and the wings were so oversized compared to the body which was about a size 22 in length. the legs were pale yellow, and I think there were 3 tails. What was it?

 

[LetortAngler]

Hard to say without a pic, but my guess would be little blue winged olive. I've seen them with yellowish barred legs, I could be wrong.

 

[outsider]

I'm very familiar with BWO's, and I'm quite sure it wasn't one. One of the key features of the fly I caught was the very over-sized, very dark wings.

 

[afishinado]

outsider wrote:
While fishing the Tulpehocken Creek this morning, I scooped up a mayfly dun. The wings were very dark colored, as was the body, and the wings were so oversized compared to the body which was about a size 22 in length. the legs were pale yellow, and I think there were 3 tails. What was it?

The fly you described sounds more like a Baetis, not a Trico

Here is some detailed info from Hatches II about each:

Baetis

Trico

 

[redietz]

afishinado wrote:

outsider wrote:
... I think there were 3 tails. What was it?

The fly you described sounds more like a Baetis, not a Trico

If it had three tails, it wasn't a Baetis. (The nymphs of many Baetis have three tails, but none of the duns do.)

Trico's do have three tails, and small bodies compared to the wing size. However, I think it's a bit early in the year for them, and AFAIK they don't have dark wings. (I'm not 100% certain I've ever seen a dun, although I've seen the spinners by the millions.)

 

[outsider]

afishinado wrote:

outsider wrote:
While fishing the Tulpehocken Creek this morning, I scooped up a mayfly dun. The wings were very dark colored, as was the body, and the wings were so oversized compared to the body which was about a size 22 in length. the legs were pale yellow, and I think there were 3 tails. What was it?

The fly you described sounds more like a Baetis, not a Trico

Here is some detailed info from Hatches II about each:

Baetis

Trico

Nope, didn't look anything like a Baetis. I am very familiar with Baetis duns. Once again, I'll express that the wings were very disproportional v. the body, and the wings were extremely dark blue. And I'm quite sure it had 3 tails. True Caenis maybe? I am looking forward to solving this mystery.

 

[afishinado]

outsider wrote:

afishinado wrote:

outsider wrote:
While fishing the Tulpehocken Creek this morning, I scooped up a mayfly dun. The wings were very dark colored, as was the body, and the wings were so oversized compared to the body which was about a size 22 in length. the legs were pale yellow, and I think there were 3 tails. What was it?

The fly you described sounds more like a Baetis, not a Trico

Here is some detailed info from Hatches II about each:

Baetis

Trico

Nope, didn't look anything like a Baetis. I am very familiar with Baetis duns. Once again, I'll express that the wings were very disproportional v. the body, and the wings were extremely dark blue. And I'm quite sure it had 3 tails. True Caenis maybe? I am looking forward to solving this mystery.

In your OP you stated you "think" it had three tails.

In the link I posted, Caenis have white wings like Tricos and Caenis have "buff to yellow" bodies.

 

[outsider]

One of the other notable features of this fly was the absence of rear wings. I put on my 2.5x reading glasses and my fishing partner looked at it with his magnifiers (his eyes are a bit better than mine), and that was another thing that stood out about this fly. Baetis have the major and minor wings. Sorry, forgot to mention that.

 

[pcray1231]

If there rear wing was totally absent (and not just very small), then:

Possible genus' with 3 tails and absent hind wing:

Asioplex
Brachycercus
caenis
tricorythodes

That's it. And Asioplex are in the same family as trico's.

Brachycercus and Caenis are closely related. "angler's curses". Both are evening bugs that hatch, molt, and fall as a spinner within an hour or so. And both are generally much smaller than a 22.

So that pretty much leaves a trico.

And well, yes, it's early for trico's. But only a few weeks, it's not like he found it in February. He found only ONE, he's not exactly claiming it was thick with them. During a heat spell on a tailwater with wildly varying conditions. On a stream well known for trico's. This just isn't that much of a stretch.

I'm going with trico.... The dark wings? Eh, it was a dun. Most of us don't see trico duns very often as they generally hatch at night.

 

[afishinado]

Trico aka white-winged black

Info from Hatches II.

My guess would be a pseudo (pseudocloeon) which is now classified with baetis. Everything matches up, except the two tails.

I referred back to my Hatches II book and posted links to the info and on the likely possibilities. Plus it's not uncommon to see pseudos hatching at that time.

 

[pcray1231]

If it had 2 tails I'd agree. And many times I've seen people say it had 2 tails for bugs that actually have 3. Didn't see it close enough, or maybe one fell off, etc.

But I've never seen anyone claim 3 when it actually had only 2.

And I'm quite sure it had 3 tails.

You could just as easily say that not only did it have 2 tails, but it actually had a hind wing, it was just smaller than most. Therefore, it's a baetis.

I didn't see it. He did. He's stating characteristics. Having not seen it, I'm not about to tell him he's wrong about those characteristics just to satisfy what I think SHOULD be there.

So I'm just gonna take him at his word and say it was a trico, which fits all of his stated characteristics perfectly. Morover, this is a stream full of them. And they're supposed to start hatching in huge numbers in 2-3 weeks. And it's an artificial tailwater, so a bug that follows natural cycles can get confused easily. He found a single, lone pioneer, that's all.

The dark colored wings? Lots of mayflies have dark wings on emergence, which lighten up with a little time in the air.