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revdw256

Insects in the south

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I live in alabama , I can't find much info on insects in the south .

I would like to know when they hatch here .

I know that mayfly adults come out around may , but I dont know about other insects.

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I live in alabama , I can't find much info on insects in the south .

I would like to know when they hatch here .

I know that mayfly adults come out around may , but I dont know about other insects.

Revdw-

 

I would expect pretty much the same variety of aquatic insects to be resident in Alabama as anywhere else in the SE. So, if you wanted to learn about insects of the SE, I would look to Florida, about whose aquatic insects there is much information published on the internet. If your research yields more questions, I would be happy to attempt answering them.

 

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You're not "generically" putting all mayflies in one category are you? You know there are many many types of mayflies such as Hexes, Hendricksen's, Sulfers and on and on. They all have different emerging times.

 

 

Mike

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You're not "generically" putting all mayflies in one category are you? You know there are many many types of mayflies such as Hexes, Hendricksen's, Sulfers and on and on. They all have different emerging times.

 

 

Mike

Mike-

 

Perhaps my meaning would have been clearer had I referred to "orders" of aquatic insects, rather than "varieties" of aquatic insects. In answer to your question, yes, I was putting all mayflies in one category, Ephemeroptera. This certainly wasn't meant to imply that all families, genera, and species of mayflies have either the same emergence timing, or other behavioral characteristics.

 

Before responding, I had actually attempted to find an emergence chart for some watershed in Alabama, as another poster had suggested, but was not successful. I suspect this may be due to the predominance of warmwater flyfishing in Alabama, as opposed to states where internet-resident hatch charts are more in evidence.

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Taxon... I was questioning the initial post made by revdw where he said that he "knows mayfly adults come out around May." Plus... I have seen enough of your responses here and on other forums to know that you speak with authority on the subject and pretty much are dead on from what I have seen. I guess I'm kind of speaking from experience in a way too. When I started back into flyfishing too many years ago, I made a comment about mayflies and was gently prodded in the right direction by a shop owner that clarified my question for me.

 

 

Mike

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Hey thanks you guys ;

Bama is always the last kid on the block.

We do have watersheds , I have the coosa river north and west of me.

and at least two major creeks , one on my property.

I never thought much about the different stages , until I started trying to learn fly fishing.

We got big ole skeeters , i guess it wouldnt hurt to tye up some of those.

 

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Hey thanks you guys ;

Bama is always the last kid on the block.

We do have watersheds , I have the coosa river north and west of me.

and at least two major creeks , one on my property.

I never thought much about the different stages , until I started trying to learn fly fishing.

We got big ole skeeters , i guess it wouldnt hurt to tye up some of those.

 

Revdw-

 

So, it sounds like you don't have much of an excuse for not sampling some aquatic insects in the creek on your property. Actually, I had a brook bordering my property, and that's where I first sampled. Although my brook didn't support any fish species, I did discover mayfly nymphs, scuds, crane fly larvae, and aquatic worms.

 

All you need is a 12x12" piece of plastic window screen stapled to two wood dowels to make a miniature kick-net. If you need any help identifying what you find, you can surely get it on this forum. In my opinion, that is the easiest way to get started learning about aquatic insects. Why not give it a try, and share your experience with us.

 

PS-

 

Of course, this offer also applies to anyone else interested in learning about aquatic insects.

 

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Have you tried contacting aquatic entomologists or fisheries people at universities in Alabama, or in neighboring states? A start would be checking through this taxonomic expert list at the NABS website: http://www.benthos.org/Education/ListbyGroup.cfm. Emails to likely sources of information might yield the necessary information, or at least other leads to other unlisted people working with insect hatches and fisheries.

Cheers, Ethan

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