Pseudo-Gray Drakes

Mayflies

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Scientific Name

Match	Scientific Name
	Metretopodidae

This common name refers to only one family.

Mayfly Family Metretopodidae

These are pretty much always called Pseudo-Gray Drakes.

The mayflies of this family are large and elegant as adults and among the fastest-swimming of all mayfly species as nymphs. Sadly only one species (Siphloplecton basale) has been reported to produce fishable hatches, and even those are exceedingly rare.

Siphloplecton basale (Pseudo-Gray Drake) Mayfly Nymph

View 4 PicturesThis nymph has double front tarsal claws (Tarsal claw: The claws at the tip of the tarsus, on an insect's "foot.") and double gills on the first three abdominal segments.

Collected March 1, 2004 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on January 25, 2006

Male Siphloplecton basale (Pseudo-Gray Drake) Mayfly Dun

View 5 PicturesThis one hatched on the same April Saturday that I saw the first Hendricksons of the season.

Collected April 24, 2004 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on January 25, 2006

Male Siphloplecton basale (Pseudo-Gray Drake) Mayfly Spinner

View 6 PicturesI went to great comical lengths to swipe this spinner from the air with a little aquarium net I carry with me while I'm fishing. Siphloplecton basale spinners fly fast and high over the riffles, and there are never very many of them, so they're difficult to catch.

Collected May 8, 2004 from in
Added to Troutnut.com by on January 25, 2006

See 8 more specimens...

Jargon Defined:

Nymphs: 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).

Spinner: There are two winged stages of adult mayflies. They emerge from the water as duns, molt on land (usually) into their fully mature stage, spinners. As spinners, they mate, lay eggs, and die.

Tarsal claws: The claws at the tip of the tarsus, on an insect's "foot."