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Photo#130472
Mayfly July 15 - Drunella - female

Mayfly July 15 - Drunella - Female
Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, USA
July 15, 2007
Size: 1/2 inch approx
3 tails

Moved
Moved from Mayflies.

Not a baetiscid
I can see why Jonas was tempted by a baetiscid ID. The stocky appearance of this female imago and the darkening around the veins at the base of the forewings is suggestive of some Baetisca females. In more than a quarter of a century of stomping around in streams in Jo Ann's neck of the woods, I have never encountered any Baetisca. The more significant factor, however, is that Baetisca adults have two tails.

The size and three tails point to an ephemerellid ID. The stocky appearance (among other things) suggests that this is Drunella. You can compare this specimen to photos of a Drunella lata female imago that Jason Neuswanger collected when we fished the lata hatch on the Brodheads last year.

I don't think that this specimen is lata. July 15th is more than a month too late for the main emergence of the larger lata (the ones that used to be known as Drunella cornuta) on Jo Ann's home river, the Lehigh. The later-hatching cohorts of lata are in the 6-8mm range. This is probably walkeri or tuberculata. They are a bit chunkier than lata and very difficult to tell apart. I have collected nymphs that are one or the other species in the Lehigh.

 
Ahh too complicated for me. O
Ahh too complicated for me. O_o Where should I put this one? ^__^

 
Drunella
Sorry, Jo Ann. Because there is no way for me to distinguish between walkeri and tuberculata, I think that placement at genus level should be OK.

Baetiscid
I'm very deeply tempted to say this might be a female Baetisca sp. mayfly...
But I don't know how large they get as adults.
http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/38/Mayfly-Baetisca-Armored-Mayflies

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