Tiny Sulphur Duns

Closely related to the important European "Spur Wings", a name given them due to the hook on the leading edge of their hindwings, these very small mayflies are usually reported in this country as inhabiting water too warm and/or stagnant for trout. But this is not always the case. Significant numbers have been reported in many cold water environments throughout the West. These tiny sulphurish mayflies are easy to confuse with small Pale Morning Duns which is perhaps the reason for their under-reporting by anglers. Their having only two tails is the easiest to way to tell the difference.

From an angling perspective, a downside of many taxonomic advances is the loss of what was thought to be the ability to use easily identifiable morphological differences for determining between genera. This is especially problematic in sorting out baetids. The truth is the old rule used by anglers involving the hindwings (i.e., spurwing - Centroptilum, no wing - Pseudocloeon, the rest - Baetis) has been dubious for years. They can no longer be applied as more has been learned about new genera and species properly reassigned. There are now some species of Centroptilum that lack hindwings altogether.

This genus is not well-known to fly fishers yet because most of its species were, until very recently, classified as either Centroptilum or Cloeon.

These mayflies may be abundant enough to cause fishable hatches in spite of their tiny size.

It's difficult to discern from previous angling literature exactly which statements now apply to Procloeon, because its species come from other little-known genera and the accounts for them conflict. They were mentioned in combination with other genera, adding to the confusion. So the information below is highly tentative and, where accounts seem to conflict, both have been given.

This taxon can be found in large western rivers.