Pictures of 1 Mayfly Specimen in the Species Drunella tuberculata:
Female Drunella tuberculata Mayfly Dun
View 14 PicturesI don't know for sure that this is Drunella tuberculata, but that's my best guess for now.
It certainly has a different look and much more robust body shape from Drunella lata duns I photographed a couple weeks earlier, so I doubt it's that species. Using distribution records to eliminate other choices narrows this down to Drunella tuberculata or Drunella walkeri.
Markings described for the abdominal sternites (Sternite: The bottom (ventral) part of a single segment on an insect's abdomen.) of the male spinner of Drunella tuberculata are suspiciously similar to those on this female dun. Also, this dun is 9.5mm long (my ruler pic isn't very good, but I'm basing this on measuring the real thing). The size range given in the old Allen & Edmunds keys for walkeri females is 7-8mm, while tuberculata is 9-11mm. For these reasons I'm sticking it in tuberculata for now.
This is the only Drunella mayfly I saw all day. I scooped it off the water as it emerged at around 7pm from a big Catskill tailwater. Recent Discussions of Drunella tuberculata
Drunella in the Smokies 6 Replies »Posted by
Konchu on Sep 20, 2009
Last reply on Jan 4, 2010 by
KonchuJust got back from a trip to the North Carolina side of the Smokies. Drunella tuberculata (probably the conestee form) is getting ready to hatch there. Most of the other bugs of decent size that I saw were relatively young.
Reply Your Thoughts On Drunella tuberculata:
You must
log in at the top of the page to post. If you haven't registered yet, it's this easy: