This is a small tributary of the East Fork of the Iron River in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. I visited it once and collected some bugs at road below a (former?) fish hatchery, but it looked too small to fish comfortably and I didn't try to catch anything.
Closeup insects from Schacte Creek
Baetidae (Blue-Winged Olives) Mayfly Nymph
View 4 PicturesThis Baetis nymph is quite a bit larger than any of the others I found in winter 2004. Abdomen segment 5 is only slightly pale while 9 and 10 are quite pale. The tail is banded at the tip. Its body measures about 9mm long. It's much larger than the other Baetis specimens I collected, and it has quite well-developed wingpads.
It's most likely a mature nymph from a very early-hatching brood. It comes from the headwaters of a very small, very spring-fed Lake Superior tributary, which wasn't at all frozen despite very frigid temperatures and 3 feet of snow on the ground.
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