**Mayfly Species Timpanoga hecuba (Great Red Quill)**

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Taxonomic Navigation -?-

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

» Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

» Class Insecta (Insects)

» Order Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)

» Family Ephemerellidae (Hendricksons, Sulphurs, PMDs, BWOs)

» Genus Timpanoga

» Species hecuba (Great Red Quill)

Common Names

Match	Common Name
	Great Red Quill
	Snake Drake
	Drake Mackerel
	Great Red Spinner
	Great Brown Spinner
	Large Dark Hendrickson

Pictures Below ↓

Timpanoga hecuba is not abundant enough, and its emergence not concentrated enough to provide great hatches, but where it is locally abundant it creates fishable action because of its large size. This species seems subject to substantial fluctuations in population densities, possibly in relation to the amount of silted habitat they prefer. When silt builds up in drought years, their numbers appear to increase. It is the largest species in the Ephemerellidae family, often rivaling Drunella grandis (Western Green Drake) in length but appearing even stouter due to its dramatic lateral (Lateral: To the side.) abdominal spines. It contains two subspecies (Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.). See the Timpanoga genus hatch page for details.

There seems to be no preferred common name and anglers call them many things. Great Red Quill and Western Red Drake seem to fit best, though many refer to them as Giant Dark Hendricksons. Many fly shop reports have recently started to refer to them by their Latin species name. A fly shop serving Yellowstone out of Gardiner, Montana calls them Drake Mackerels in their hatch chart.

Where & When

Region: West

Time Of Year (?): Mid-Summer through early Fall

Hatching Behavior

Time Of Day (?): Evening

Spinner Behavior

The duns may wait for several days before returning together as spinners, and in Knopp and Cormier say this can lead to fishable spinner falls.

Nymph Biology

Current Speed: Slow

Substrate: Silt

Pictures of 3 Mayfly Specimens in the Species Timpanoga hecuba:

Female Timpanoga hecuba (Great Red Quill) Mayfly Dun

View 3 PicturesThis specimen is 14 mm. Technically this is the subspecies (Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.) T. h. hecuba. The Cascades, Sierras and further West is where the other subspecies (Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.), T. h. pacifica is found. The Great Basin seems to have formed a barrier preventing any overlap in their distribution.

Collected September 15, 2013 from Mystery Creek #178 in Idaho
Added to Troutnut.com by Entoman on September 23, 2013

Timpanoga hecuba (Great Red Quill) Mayfly Nymph

View 2 Pictures

Collected August 26, 2005 from the St. Regis River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Bnewell on June 28, 2011

Timpanoga hecuba (Great Red Quill) Mayfly Nymph

View 6 Pictures

Collected August 31, 2018 from the Bitterroot River in Montana
Added to Troutnut.com by Troutnut on June 13, 2019

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Jargon Defined:

Duns: 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.

Emergence: The transformation of a nymph or pupa into the adult winged stage of an insect. The term may refer to the emergence of an individual, or the daily or yearly event in which all individuals of a species emerge.

Lateral: To the side.

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.

Subspecies: Entomologists sometimes further divide a species into distinct groups called subspecies, which have two lower-case words on the end of their scientific name instead of one. The latter is the sub-species name. For example, Maccaffertium mexicanum mexicanum and Maccaffertium mexicanum integrum are two different subspecies of Maccaffertium mexicanum.

Useful References:

Arbona, Fred Jr. 1989. Mayflies, the Angler, and the Trout. Nick Lyons Books.

Caucci, Al and Nastasi, Bob. 2004. Hatches II. The Lyons Press.

Knopp, Malcolm and Robert Cormier. 1997. Mayflies: An Angler's Study of Trout Water Ephemeroptera . The Lyons Press.