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Fishskicano | May 19th, 2009, 7:59 am | |
Merrill, WI Posts: 2 | I was fishing yesterday in north central Wisconsin. At the end of the day there was a sparse hatch of mayflies. They resembled the March Browns that hatch later in the year on this same river but they were a good 2 to 3 hook sizes smaller than the March Browns (#14/#16 as opposed to #10/ #12) that come off in early June. Add to that that the season is running a week or two behind schedule and that makes it even harder to reconcile an early emergence of March Browns. The fish did not seem particularly interested in the bugs (they go nuts over the MB hatch in June). Any ideas? | |
GONZO | May 19th, 2009, 5:30 pm | |
Site Editor "Bear Swamp," PAPosts: 1681 | Hi George, Other than the small size, I can't see anything about your specimen that suggests that it is not a March brown (M. vicarium). That species, as currently described, is notorious for wide variation in size and color, and often has a rather lengthy and spotty emergence. I find sizes for this species (or its synonyms) ranging from 10-18mm in the scientific literature. The lower end of that range is close to what you describe, about a #14. (There is a fair amount of subjective interpretation involved in hook size translations.) Your specimen is also a male, and males run smaller than females. Although some unusual influence may have played a role, I would guess that you witnessed a limited emergence of smallish males. | |
Konchu | May 19th, 2009, 7:59 pm | |
Site Editor IndianaPosts: 505 | If this is Maccaffertium (formerly Stenonema), vicarium is an excellent guess. It is a fairly early Maccaffertium. My source suggests a range of 9-14mm for the male adults (10-18 for larvae). The longitudinal striping on the abdomen makes me lean towards vicarium, in addition to the size. I'd thought Leucrocuta earlier (deleted the post) based on the smaller size and shading of the wing veins, but M. vicarium is better, due to coloration, leg striping, etc. Good call from the Bear Swamp. M. integrum is even smaller, 5-7mm, and has a broken stripe, but it occurs later in the year. | |
Fishskicano | May 20th, 2009, 4:40 am | |
Merrill, WI Posts: 2 | Well, I just picked up a ruler and held it against the same spot I took the second picture and 10mm is just about what the bug would have measured. So mystery solved. Interestingly enough a friend was fishing a river last night 20 miles from where I was Monday and also ran across a hatch of smaller than average March Browns. In his case though the eyes were the moss green that the males have in Jason's photos. I'll post a link to his response and his picture below. http://www.wisflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1242735856 | |
Wiflyfisher | May 20th, 2009, 5:09 am | |
Wisconsin Posts: 663 | IMHO, the wing is dead on M. vicarium. I have seen a lot of size variation as well. Although in early June in the NW corner you get a lot of much larger March Browns. If I remember right, "Konchu and gang" lumped Stenonema fuscum (which is smaller) with Maccaffertium vicarium now. | |
John S. https://WiFlyFisher.com | ||
GONZO | May 20th, 2009, 9:45 am | |
Site Editor "Bear Swamp," PAPosts: 1681 | If I remember right, "Konchu and gang" lumped Stenonema fuscum (which is smaller) with Maccaffertium vicarium now. I don't think Konchu was part of that "gang," John. As best I can reconstruct it, that particular "lumping" went something like this: The former Stenonema fuscum was synonymized under Stenonema vicarium by Bednarik and McCafferty in 1979. That same year, Bednarik also proposed "Maccaffertium" as a subgenus of Stenonema. Maccaffertium was then elevated to genus level by Wang and McCafferty in 2004, leaving only Stenonema femoratum in the genus Stenonema. That combination produced Maccaffertium vicarium as we know it now. (I'm sure Konchu can correct me if I've made any mistakes in tracing that process.) | |
Title | Replies | Last Reply |
Re: Little J In General Discussion by Wbranch | 3 | May 17, 2009 by GONZO |
Re: Need help with mayfly nymph ID In the Identify This! Board by RustySpinnr | 8 | Mar 30, 2012 by Brookyman |
Re: Finally my "Stenonema" section isn't empty In Stenonema femoratum Mayfly Nymph by Troutnut | 2 | May 20, 2007 by Troutnut |
Re: 2 tails or 3 In the Mayfly Species Maccaffertium vicarium by Snagy | 1 | Feb 6, 2010 by Taxon |
Re: Not sure what this is... In the Photography Board by Freepow | 3 | Jun 6, 2008 by Freepow |
Re: Insect photos on CatskillFlies website In the Mayfly Genus Ephemerella by Jpsully | 4 | May 24, 2008 by Softhackle |
Re: Maccaffertium spinner, maybe?? In the Identify This! Board by Wiflyfisher | 9 | Jun 13, 2008 by Wiflyfisher |
Re: Mayfly ID In the Identify This! Board by JSY | 13 | Jul 22, 2021 by Jmd123 |
Re: A few bugs from the Kinderhook Creek (NY) In the Identify This! Board by Agresens | 3 | Jun 27, 2018 by Konchu |
Re: What genus this mayfly ? In the Identify This! Board by And | 5 | Apr 22, 2007 by Brookyman |