Slate Drakes

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Scientific Names

Match	Scientific Name
	Isonychiidae
	Drunella walkeri

Like most common names, "Slate Drake" can refer to more than one taxon. They're previewed below, along with 3 specimens. For more detail click through to the scientific names.

Mayfly Family Isonychiidae

These are often called Slate Drakes.

See Isonychia for details. It is the only North American genus in this family.

Isonychia bicolor (Mahogany Dun) Mayfly Nymph

View 7 PicturesThis Isonychia bicolor nymph from the Catskills displays the prominent white stripe sometimes characteristic of its species. This is the first such specimen I've photographed, because members of the same species in the Upper Midwest have a more subdued stripe (and were once thought to be a different species, Isonychia sadleri). The striking coloration on this eastern nymph is more appealing.

Collected April 19, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on April 21, 2006

Female Isonychia bicolor (Mahogany Dun) Mayfly Dun

View 13 Pictures

Collected June 14, 2005 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 26, 2006

Male Isonychia bicolor (Mahogany Dun) Mayfly Spinner

View 15 PicturesI got several really nice pictures of this spinner. I also collected a female on the same trip.

Collected August 9, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on August 11, 2006

See 17 more specimens...

Mayfly Species Drunella walkeri

These are very rarely called Slate Drakes.

Ernest Schwiebert had this to say about the hatches of this chunky Eastern Drunella (Blue-Winged Olive) species:

An imitation is rarely required, but notes show that when it is needed it is needed badly.

See the Drunella and Drunella cornuta hatch pages for additional information.

Jargon Defined:

Nymph: The juvenile, underwater stages of mayflies, stoneflies, dragonflies, and damselflies and other aquatic insects whose juvenile stages are covered by hard exoskeletons. The word can also refer to the fishing flies which imitate these creatures, in which case it is used as a blanket term for flies imitating any underwater stage of an invertebrate (except for crayfish and leeches).

Spinner: There are two winged stages of adult mayflies. They emerge from the water as duns, molt on land (usually) into their fully mature stage, spinners. As spinners, they mate, lay eggs, and die.

Useful References:

Schwiebert, Ernest G. 1955. Matching the Hatch. MacMillan Publishing Company.