Troutnut.com Fly Fishing for Trout Home
User Password
or register.
Scientific name search:

Blue Quills



Like most common names, "Blue Quill" can refer to more than one taxon. They're previewed below, along with 11 specimens. For more detail click through to the scientific names.

Mayfly Species Neoleptophlebia adoptiva

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This is the best Spring hatch after the Quill Gordons (Epeorus pleuralis) but before the Hendricksons (Ephemerella subvaria) in most parts of the East, although it can overlap with both. The Blue Quills are small mayflies (hook size 16-20) but they can hatch in incredible numbers at a time when eager trout are just beginning to look to the surface after a hungry winter.
Male Neoleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) Mayfly DunMale Neoleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) Mayfly Dun View 14 Pictures
Collected April 30, 2007 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 3, 2007
Male Neoleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) Mayfly SpinnerMale Neoleptophlebia adoptiva (Blue Quill) Mayfly Spinner View 7 PicturesBased on the pale longitudinal forewing veins (excepting the costals), dark middle terga (Tergum: the dorsal part of an abdominal segment or segments (terga). Also used to describe the entire abdominal dorsum or the thoracic dorsal segments of Odonata.), and genitalia (Burks '53), this specimen is P. adoptiva.
Collected May 9, 2007 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 18, 2007

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia gregalis

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This species produces fishable hatches, but it is not well-known in angling literature. This is due primarily to its range, which consists only of California and parts of Oregon. It is a small (by western Paraleptophlebia standards) Spring emerger that fills the niche taken by Paraleptophlebia heteronea in the rest of the West.

Mayfly Species Neoleptophlebia heteronea

These are pretty much always called Blue Quills.
This species is the primary spring emerging Paraleptophlebia throughout the western region. Outside of California and parts of Oregon, if you run into a little blue winged brown bodied fly with three tails in the spring, it's probably this.
Male Neoleptophlebia heteronea (Blue Quill) Mayfly SpinnerMale Neoleptophlebia heteronea (Blue Quill) Mayfly Spinner View 12 PicturesI keyed this one out to species on the microscope because it was too small for the genitalia to show the distinguishing characteristics in the images here.
Collected July 1, 2019 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on July 18, 2019
Male Neoleptophlebia heteronea (Blue Quill) Mayfly AdultMale Neoleptophlebia heteronea (Blue Quill) Mayfly Adult View 1 Pictures
Collected May 16, 2012 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 18, 2012

Mayfly Genus Paraleptophlebia

These are often called Blue Quills.
There are many species in this genus of mayflies, and some of them produce excellent hatches. Commonly known as Blue Quills or Mahogany Duns, they include some of the first mayflies to hatch in the Spring and some of the last to finish in the Fall.

In the East and Midwest, their small size (16 to 20, but mostly 18's) makes them difficult to match with old techniques. In the 1950s Ernest Schwiebert wrote in Matching the Hatch:

"The Paraleptophlebia hatches are the seasonal Waterloo of most anglers, for without fine tippets and tiny flies an empty basket is assured."

Fortunately, modern anglers with experience fishing hatches of tiny Baetis and Tricorythodes mayflies are better prepared for eastern Paraleptophlebia. It's hard to make sense of so many species, but only one is very important and others can be considered in groups because they often hatch together:
In the West, it is a different story. For starters the species run much larger and can be imitated with flies as large as size 12, often size 14, and rarely smaller than 16. Another difference is the West has species with tusks! Many anglers upon first seeing them think they are immature burrowing nymphs of the species Ephemera simulans aka Brown Drake. With their large tusks, feathery gills, and slender uniform build, it's an easy mistake to make. Using groups again:
Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly NymphParaleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly Nymph View 6 Pictures
Collected February 7, 2004 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on January 25, 2006
Female Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly DunFemale Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly Dun View 4 PicturesI really hoped to catch some good blue quill specimens on this trip, but they are very fragile mayflies and this one was in the best condition of the few that I caught after I drove them home to my camera. It may not be pretty, but you get an idea of the size/shape/color anyway.
Collected April 19, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on April 21, 2006
Male Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly SpinnerMale Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly Spinner View 15 PicturesI wasn't actually fishing the river where I caught this one. I was just scouting, didn't like the look of the water, and as I was walking back to the car this little dun landed on my vest. Why can't they all be so easy to collect?
Collected September 8, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on October 4, 2006
Female Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly AdultFemale Paraleptophlebia (Blue Quills and Mahogany Duns) Mayfly Adult View 1 PicturesThis female exhibits the dark chocolate color so common in this genus.
Collected June 5, 2011 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on June 26, 2011

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia guttata

These are often called Blue Quills.
This species often hatches together with Paraleptophlebia mollis and Paraleptophlebia strigula.

Mayfly Species Paraleptophlebia strigula

These are often called Blue Quills.
This species often hatches together with Paraleptophlebia mollis and Paraleptophlebia guttata.

Mayfly Species Leptophlebia johnsoni

These are very rarely called Blue Quills.

Mayfly Species Epeorus pleuralis

These are very rarely called Blue Quills.
This is the first really good dry-fly opportunity of the season for most Eastern anglers. They are large mayflies and they have good points of vulnerability both underwater and on the surface.
Epeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly NymphEpeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Nymph View 4 PicturesThis Epeorus pluralis dun is recently deceased in these photos. I decided not to photograph several lively, less mature nymphs. This one was ready to hatch, as indicated by the black wing pads (
The wing pads on this final instar Baetidae mayfly nymph are extremely dark.
The wing pads on this final instar Baetidae mayfly nymph are extremely dark.
Wing pad: A protrusion from the thorax of an insect nymph which holds the developing wings. Black wing pads usually indicate that the nymph is nearly ready to emerge into an adult.
)
. I believe it had not been dead long enough to lose its natural coloration.
Collected April 19, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on April 21, 2006
Male Epeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly DunMale Epeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Dun View 9 PicturesI kept this specimen after photographing it and it molted into a spinner in perfect condition, which I photographed here.
Collected April 30, 2007 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 3, 2007
Male Epeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly SpinnerMale Epeorus pleuralis (Quill Gordon) Mayfly Spinner View 10 PicturesI 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.) most of the day looking for Epeorus pluralis duns or spinners without any luck on the major Catskill rivers. Finally in the evening I arrived at a small stream somebody had recommended, and when I got out of the car I was happy to find that I had parked in the middle of a cloud of male spinners.
Collected April 19, 2006 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on April 22, 2006
Top 10 Fly Hatches
Top Gift Shop Designs
Top Insect Specimens
Miscellaneous Sites