Beauty and the bugs in a little meadow stream in central Washington
By
Troutnut on July 28th, 2019
On Sunday July 28th, I drove 2-3 hours each way (traffic got crazy) to spend about 3 hours fishing and sampling bugs in a favorite small stream on the east side of the Cascades, where a meadow in the middle of a hot burn from a few years ago has produced surprisingly large (meaning up to 10") and spectacularly colorful Westslope Cutthroat Trout. It could almost be called a spring creek, at least in the meadow reaches, although the same clear, stable, spring-fed water tumbles through a rocky forest for most of its length.
It is by far the smallest stream I routinely fish, and sometimes it's so narrow the grass overlaps the water from both sides and leaves nowhere to cast. With the combination of close quarters, tight spaces, clear water, and bright sun, it was a real challenge to sneak up on fish and present a fly without spooking them.
Every once in a while it opens up to a "large pool" like this one, which held the biggest fish of the day (about 8.5").
The larger fish I've caught previously were either hiding under the cut banks for the day or living in bigger water downstream. It's possible I've seen them up this high in the past because I fished it about a month earlier and they were up there spawning. I explored the forested reach below for just a little while and caught one still in spawning colors:
I was as interested in bug collecting on this trip as in the fish themselves, because I figured the altitude (around 5,000 feet) and spring-fed nature of the system might offer something new to find. It didn't disappoint. By far the most abundant large nymphs in my kicknet sample were Drunella coloradensis, and I collected my first adults of this species as well.
Among the dozens of nymphs of that species, I found a single specimen of a really unique-looking mayfly nymph that got me excited, the ultra-spiky Drunella spinifera:
I also collected my first adult of the extremely common caddisfly genus Rhyacophila:
And sweeping around the grass overhanging the stream turned up a few specimens of Dolichopodidae, or Longlegged Flies.
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Date AddedJul 29, 2019
CameraNIKON 1 AW1
Suwallia pallidula (Sallfly) Stonefly Nymph
View 6 PicturesThis specimen keys out to Suwallia, for which I did not find any nymph species keys. However, I'm placing it in Suwallia pallidula because I caught a few adults in the same spot that closely resembled the abundant nymphs and keyed them out to species. Features I noted under the microscope when keying this specimen to genus included apical (Apical: Close to the apex; tip or end.) hairs of cercal segments that were directed at posterior (Posterior: Toward the back of an organism's body. The phrase "posterior to" means "in back of.") angles, and the longest apical (Apical: Close to the apex; tip or end.) hairs of distal (Distal: Far from the point of attachment or origin; near the tip.) segments were shorter than their following segment. Female Ameletus (Brown Duns) Mayfly Spinner
View 13 PicturesI found this female already spent (Spent: The wing position of many aquatic insects when they fall on the water after mating. The wings of both sides lay flat on the water. The word may be used to describe insects with their wings in that position, as well as the position itself.) and nearly dead, laying in the surface film of a very tiny spring seep (inch-deep water) in the valley of a very small trout stream. Male Serratella micheneri (Little Western Dark Hendrickson) Mayfly Nymph
View 9 PicturesThis specimen has tarsal claws (Tarsal claw: The claws at the tip of the tarsus, on an insect's "foot.") with 7 denticles (
The denticles on the tarsal claw of this
Ephemerella nymph are highlighted in red.
Denticle: Small tooth-like projects, often appearing like serrations on the tarsal claws of certain mayfly nymphs.) and tubercles (
A few (not all) of the abdominal tubercles on this
Ephemerella needhami nymph are circled. They are especially large in this species.
Tubercle: Various peculiar little bumps or projections on an insect. Their character is important for the identification of many kinds of insects, such as the nymphs of Ephemerellidae mayflies.) on abdominal segments 4-7 only. It keys to Serratella micheneri, as do some other specimens from the same collection that lacked the dorsal (Dorsal: Top.) stripe. Ameletus (Brown Duns) Mayfly Nymph
View 2 PicturesThese two exuviae are my sad little consolation prize after collecting a couple of really cool, large, mature mayfly nymphs I didn't recognize from a tiny, probably fishless, spring-fed tributary of a slightly less tiny trout stream. I saw the nymphs in the kicknet samples and carefully transferred each one to my holding cooler before going to collect more samples. When I got home, I carefully went through the whole sample and couldn't find either one of them. Getting worried, I did it again and even more carefully. This time, I found both exuviae. By process of elimination, pretty much the only possibility is that both of them hatched out of my cooler and flew away during the 10 minutes or so that I had the lid off to collect more samples.
I was really excited about them for the whole three-hour drive home and seriously bummed that they disappeared. In the field I thought they might be one of the families of swimmer nymphs I don't have yet, like Ametropodidae, but keying the exuviae takes me to Ameletus, so at least I didn't miss some great rarity. Still, they were much larger and darker than any other Ameletus I've collected and probably a species I don't have yet.
Most recent comments on this post (latest on top)
Martinlf | August 5th, 2019, 12:25 pm | |
Moderator Palmyra PA
Posts: 3233 | Interesting. Stunning photos. Thank you for sharing, Jason. |
| "He spread them a yard and a half. 'And every one that got away is this big.'"
--Fred Chappell |
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