2 replies to this topic

[salmobytes]

Here's a drowned female PMD. The female bodies are homogenously olive green. The only yellow in the females appears at the base of the stem of the wing. The males are a little smaller and more yellow overall. Even the abdomens appear more as yellow than olive--for the males.

I'll have to do a stomach inventory someday. The males are far more frenetic. They only ride the surface tension for a few inches and then fly off. During the hatch, the duns you see flying around are predominantly the males. The larger, fatter and more lethargic females often ride the surface tension for 20' feet or more before flying off--and then head straight for the bushes.

So I've always suspected the females are more commonly eaten. It would be interesting to actually see. Maybe I'll konk a small brown trout next July. Or bring a turkey baster and a dishpan to the Spring Creek.

[mikechell]

Nice, detailed picture.  Looks like the wings failed to unfurl.

 

I only wish you had a scale beside it ... or is that one actual size for your neck o' the woods?

[salmobytes]

They're size #16-#20. Bigger earlier in the year and smaller as the season progresses. 5/16" inch long? Something like that. I remember one day in August, at a time when the hatch is usually petering out when we got 24 hours of torrential rain. The PMDs hatch like crazy during and right after the rain. And it seemed like they were the big ones again.