Little black Quills

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Scientific Names

Match	Scientific Name
	Teloganopsis
	Teloganopsis deficiens

Like most common names, "Little Black Quill" can refer to more than one taxon. They're previewed below, along with 1 specimen. For more detail click through to the scientific names.

Mayfly Genus Teloganopsis

These are pretty much always called Little black Quills.

This genus contains a single species in the U.S., previously identified as Serratella deficians (Little Dark Olive). Teloganopsis deficians (Darth Vader Dun) can be important in the East where it's little dark (almost black) winged duns are hard to mistake for several other common dark ephemerellids.

This genus is unrepresented in the West.

Teloganopsis deficiens (Little Black Quill) Mayfly Nymph

View 6 PicturesThis nymph has tiny, barely detectable tubercles (

A few (not all) of the abdominal tubercles on this Ephemerella needhami nymph are circled. They are especially large in this species.

Tubercle: Various peculiar little bumps or projections on an insect. Their character is important for the identification of many kinds of insects, such as the nymphs of Ephemerellidae mayflies.) on its abdominal segments, and I could not find the maxillary palpi. I have tentatively guessed that it is Serratella deficiens.

Collected June 9, 2005 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 26, 2006

Mayfly Species Teloganopsis deficiens

These are pretty much always called Little black Quills.

Anglers in western Wisconsin, where these little flies hatch in good numbers on summer rivers, have termed them "Darth Vaders" because of the very dark color of their wings.

Until recently, this species was known as Serratella deficiens.

Teloganopsis deficiens (Little Black Quill) Mayfly Nymph

View 6 PicturesThis nymph has tiny, barely detectable tubercles (

A few (not all) of the abdominal tubercles on this Ephemerella needhami nymph are circled. They are especially large in this species.

Collected June 9, 2005 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on May 26, 2006

Jargon Defined:

Dun: Mayflies have two adult stages. They first emerge from the water as duns (scientifically known as the subimago stage). They then molt into the spinner (imago) stage, in which they mate and die. Sometimes the word "dun" is confusingly used to refer to a brownish gray color in fly tying materials.

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).

A few (not all) of the abdominal tubercles on this Ephemerella needhami nymph are circled. They are especially large in this species.

Tubercles: Various peculiar little bumps or projections on an insect. Their character is important for the identification of many kinds of insects, such as the nymphs of Ephemerellidae mayflies.