Insect Order Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)

Two Ephemera simulans (Brown Drake) spinners hang from tree leaves along the river. It's worthwhile to look for these in afternoons during the Brown Drake hatch, because their presence may reveal the best place to fish in the evening.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Ephemera simulans (Brown Drake).

Spider webs are nature's hatch charts. They often tell you what's been hatching recently. This one reveals a Trico hatch.

In this picture: Mayfly Genus Tricorythodes (Tricos).

This is the skin a brown drake dun shed when it molted into a spinner. Many of these were on the surface one afternoon, having been blown in after the flies molted on overhanging alders. They were our most noticeable sign of an intense brown drake hatch the previous night and a spinner fall to come.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Ephemera simulans (Brown Drake).

This Maccaffertium mayfly dun is well-camouflaged among the moss and cedar debris on a midstream log.

In this picture: Mayfly Genus Maccaffertium (March Browns and Cahills).

This male Stenacron interpunctatum spinner rests on a wooden dock over the warmwater lake on which he was found. Many of his kind were in the air over parts of the lake at dusk.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Stenacron interpunctatum (Light Cahill).

This Ephemerella invaria sulphur dun got stuck in its shuck (

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Here's an underwater view of the pupal shucks of several already-emerged Brachycentrus numerosus caddisflies.

Shuck: The shed exoskeleton left over when an insect molts into its next stage or instar. Most often it describes the last nymphal or pupal skin exited during emergence into a winged adult.) trying to emerge. This isn't exactly a "natural" pose for a photograph, but it kind of shows what an emerger pattern could look like.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Ephemerella invaria (Sulphur).

This is just about the most Isonychia bicolor shucks (

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Here's an underwater view of the pupal shucks of several already-emerged Brachycentrus numerosus caddisflies.

Shuck: The shed exoskeleton left over when an insect molts into its next stage or instar. Most often it describes the last nymphal or pupal skin exited during emergence into a winged adult.) I've ever seen on the rocks, and appropriately enough they're on the river where Art Flick described them in his Streamside Guide.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Isonychia bicolor (Mahogany Dun).

Here are the empty nymphal cases of Isonychia bicolor mayflies which hatched in early fall in the Catskills by crawling out onto a rock.

In this picture: Mayfly Species Isonychia bicolor (Mahogany Dun).