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**Mayfly Species Ironodes nitidus (Slate Maroon Drake)**

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Taxonomic Navigation -?-

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

» Class Insecta (Insects)

» Order Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)

» Family Heptageniidae (March Browns, Cahills, Quill Gordons)

» Genus Ironodes

» Species nitidus (Slate Maroon Drake)

Common Name

Match	Common Name
	Slate Maroon Drake

Pictures Below ↓

This large, relatively uncommon Western mayfly may produce short fishable hatches. Ernest Schwiebert remarked in Matching the Hatch about its unique appearance:

This large dark mayfly is one of the most unusually colored insects to hatch on Western streams, for its sternites (

One sternite of this Isonychia bicolor mayfly spinner is highlighted in red.
Sternite: The bottom (ventral) part of a single segment on an insect's abdomen.) are a reddish maroon.

Where & When

Region: West

Time Of Year (?): June to mid-July

This species is most widespread across the West, but it receives the most praise for hatches in the Pacific Coast states.

Hatching Behavior

Time Of Day (?): Midday

Habitat: Fast water

The emergence does not last very long, but it can be intense. These mayflies escape their nymphal shucks (

View Full Size

Here's an underwater view of the pupal shucks of several already-emerged Brachycentrus numerosus caddisflies.

Shuck: The shed exoskeleton left over when an insect molts into its next stage or instar. Most often it describes the last nymphal or pupal skin exited during emergence into a winged adult.) underwater, usually while clinging to the bottom except in unusually slow water.

Swisher and Richards in Selective Trout recommend fishing a nymph deep throughout this hatch.

Spinner Behavior

The spinner falls are unimportant.

Nymph Biology

Current Speed: Fast

Substrate: Gravel and rocks

Pictures of 1 Mayfly Specimen in the Species Ironodes nitidus:

Ironodes nitidus (Slate Maroon Drake) Mayfly Adult

View 3 PicturesWhile relatively rare in most of western Montana, it is common in several small streams along the east side of Flathead Lake and streams on the south side of the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Collected June 25, 2008 from Yellow Bay Creek in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Bnewell on June 28, 2011

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Jargon Defined:

Emergence: The transformation of a nymph or pupa into the adult winged stage of an insect. The term may refer to the emergence of an individual, or the daily or yearly event in which all individuals of a species emerge.

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).

View Full Size

Here's an underwater view of the pupal shucks of several already-emerged Brachycentrus numerosus caddisflies.

Shucks: The shed exoskeleton left over when an insect molts into its next stage or instar. Most often it describes the last nymphal or pupal skin exited during emergence into a winged adult.

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.

One sternite of this Isonychia bicolor mayfly spinner is highlighted in red.

Sternites: The bottom (ventral) part of a single segment on an insect's abdomen.

Useful References:

Arbona, Fred Jr. 1989. Mayflies, the Angler, and the Trout. Nick Lyons Books.

Knopp, Malcolm and Robert Cormier. 1997. Mayflies: An Angler's Study of Trout Water Ephemeroptera . The Lyons Press.

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

Swisher, Doug and Carl Richards. 2000. Selective Trout. The Lyons Press.