A discussion of metamorphosis - focusing on simple metamorphosis as it relates to mayflies, stoneflies, and damsel and dragonflies. And of course rambles about the nature of change. I hope you enjoy.

Hey Everyone,

Here are the pictures and patterns that are relevant to Part 1 on of metamorphosis - focusing in incomplete metamorphosis and the critters that do that. (Primarily mayflies, stoneflies and dragon and damselflies).

First, though, as promised in the podcast, here is what a silverfish looks like. A little worse for wear - he's (or she) has been pickled for 8 years, so it's lost a lot of its color. Normally, they are a very silver color - hence the name. In some ways you may say this looks a little like a mayfly nymph. In real life, looking at them, you would not mistake them as being different.

The next thing I wanted to do is give you a step by step on tying a gold ribbed possum ear. American Opossum is a highly under used fly tying material, in my humble opinion. It has a wonderful transluscence. Here is a nice discussion on uses:

https://flymphforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=10529&sid=1825d397c1ad8d45a10d56ac80e5e48b

But what I want to talk about is my pattern that represents the light colored stage of aquatic insects while their exoskeleton is hardening. Entomologists call this a teneral stage.

Here is a picture of the outcome - a Gold Ribbed Possum Ear - obviously a joke, as possums don't have any fur on their ears, and inappropriately abbreviated as GROPE.

First step is finding yourself a possum mask - like this.

Where the question becomes, where do you get one? My brother was a trapper in Kansas so I was well supplied. When I run out I'll likely order from Moscow Hide and Fur.

Use any nymph hook you prefer. And I use a light or white thread.

Trim off a pile of guard hairs to make the tail and tie that in. And tire in the gold wire. Of course, my tying desk is a mess, so I grabbed the silver. Go figger

Here is the cool part. Get yourself a dubbing rake. These are the slickest most under appreciated fly tying tool. Selene used to carry them in her fly shop, I presume she still does or can order them: Selene's Fly Shop. The ones she carried are much nicer than this one.

All you do is rake it across your material and you get a nice pile of dubbing - with guard hairs mixed in! Dub in your abdomen, wrap up your wire rib.

For a wing case I use any white feather. I generally like something with some patterning - like a turkey wing quill.

Obviously, you use the white sections of the quill.

Spray with artists' fixative (smells much better than Aqua Net). I'm in no way affiliated with this brand. I'm sure they all work fine and smell better than Aquanet. I've been around pig farms in rural Wisconsin that smelled better than Aquanet.

And tie in a slip to make a wing case.

Finish up your thorax with more Opossum Mask, fold over your wing case and tie a nice neat head.

Then, use dubbing brush to brush out all those great guard hairs to make it nice and buggy. Again, here is what it looks like:

Pretty cool, huh?

OK, next I want to show you some exuvia (or shed skins) from some aquatic insects that have left the water to molt into their adult terrestrial form.

This is a cool pic, in that not only does it show a golden stone exuvia, but if you look around it, you will see multiple mayfly exuvia - including one on the stonefly! These are probably mayfly duns molting into spinners. But still pretty cool.

And then here is a dragonfly exuvia.

I've mentioned this before - but check out those white fibers - those are the chitin lined tracheae - or breathing tubes. When they molt, the turn inside out, like socks when you take them off. We'll see some more examples of that shortly.

Ah, then I started talking about the work I'm doing looking at the diet of Aroostook County Brook Trout. Check this out - this is a 2 1/2" crayfish I pulled out of the stomach of a 13" trout. That is the equivalent of me swallowing a lobster whole. I certainly can gobble up a full lobster, but I do have to admit, I don't eat it whole - no matter how much I'd like to be a native Mainer.

Note how it looks like a cooked lobster. That is because there are proteins in the shell/exoskeleton that, while normally green or brown, unravel or become denatured when exposed to heat or acid. Specifically, the protein is called crustacyanin. When cooked, or exposed to any denaturing agent (like acid in you stomach) it exposes the astaxanthin which is a red color. You may be most familiar with this concept of protein denaturization when you cook an egg white. Normally clear, but when cooked and denatured, it turns white. You can also "cook" an egg white with vinegar. Cool, huh?

Somewhere along the line I said I'd post a picture of what the darkened wings look like on a nymph before it is going to hatch. Here is one on a Baetis nymph:

Here is a cool close up picture showing the pattern on those wing pads - which I always think is so cool.

Ok, next I'm going to post a series of pictures showing a dragonfly nymph molting.

OK, here the nymph has just begun to molt. Note the white fibers of the trachea pulling out. Also note how the wings are not expanded.

Here you can see how the insect has successfully extracted itself from it's old exoskeleton. The wings are starting to expand, but note how the abdomen does not look like a normal dragonfly abdomen. It has yet to stretch out and force the hemolymph (kind of like blood) into the wings.

Another view, a little bit further along in the process. The wings are starting to expand. Note how they are held over their back more like a mayfly, rather than a dragonfly.

This next video will show an incredible sequence of a dragonfly nymph crawling up the rock, while the dragonfly we've seen photographs of above, completes its molt and flies off - note how it's wings spread out and dry for a bit before it dries off. Also note it's color. That is not it's final color - it is in a teneral stage - where it's exoskeleton hasn't hardened completely and the final color hasn't developed.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/forcedn/anglersentomology/IMG_0156.mp4

I think that is a really cool series of pics and a video. It is kind of a let down of following that up with just a fly pattern I like, but there you go:

Here is my version of an Assam Dragon - which is a great simple fly. This one is tied with a strip of red squirrel body fur. It is out of my working box - so as usual, those are the rejects - and it looks like the soft hackle neck/legs are missing. Either torn off by a trout, or more likely, I forgot to put it on, which is why it is in my working box. Doi.

Hook: Wetfly size 12 or 10

Body: A palmered strip of mole skin or red squirrel skin.

Hackle: A few turns of an apopriately colored hen hackle.

Eyes: Originally bead chain painted black. You can also use weighted dumb bell eyes.

and then here is my favorite imitation of a damselfly nymph - Again, very simple:

Tail and abdomen. Floss - of the appropriate color - olive, tan or dark brown

Ribbing: Gold wire if you want

Wing case - ribbing wrapped to the eye and then folded back like legs, but on top.

Eyes - little plastic ones or bead chain, or in this example, nuttin.

That's it, and talk to you next time!

Hey everyone. I hope you enjoy today's episode on black quills. I have some nice pics and patterns on the blog, so check that out too. Email me ([email protected]) if you want a guided entomology/fishing trip and get your loot at Selene's Fly Shop.

Hey everyone. Here is my blog post for Episode 54: Pics and Patterns for Black Quills.

First let's take a look at the nymph. Here is a nice black quill nymph with a scale in centimeters. It is hard to see, but note the length of the antennae and the nice dark wing cases. That suggests he (or she) is likely to hatch soon. (Well, if he (or she) wasn't pickled in alcohol since 2003). Also fyi, this one was collected in a pond - which make sense, they migrate from moving water to still water to hatch. In contrast, the next specimen was collected in a stream, and you'll note the lack of developed wing pads (noting it was also collected earlier in the season).

OK, here is a nice pic of a live specimen showing off those gills. Note how the first gill consists of two simple fibers. Then the following gills are those beautiful flowing gills that move so much when they are alive.

Here is a nicer picture of that first specimen showing off the gills. Of course I'm sure you are curious about the big black innertube looking thing. That is actually a rubber O-ring that you use for plumbing. I pop those in my petri dish when I'm sorting specimens to make a petri dish within my petri dish.

Before we jump into patterns, let's look at some of my feeble attempts at art. Here is what a black quill nymph should look like!

Here's my interpretation of those first gill segments.

And more interestingly, here are the other abdominal gills. Note that it is not just one leaflike gill .. each one has two gills. That helps with that feathery appearance.

OK, let's talk about some flies. In my humble opinion, this is what a black quill nymph should look like. And I'm stunned I've not seen any patterns like this. Compare this fly to the pics. It is even more dramatic when you are looking at a live nymph and comparing it to a video of the fly in moving water. Unfortunately, I don't think I can upload a video in this blog. There must be a way - I should figure that out.

Eric's Black Quill Nymph

Thread: Brown

Hook: 9672 size 12 or 10 or equivalent.

Tail: Drake Hooded Merganser flank feathers. You absolutely must use these. You cannot substitute anything else for this. Good luck finding them. I'll sell them to you for $5 a feather. OK, I popped a hooded merganser last duck season (not a lot of meat on them) - feel free to use brown dyed mallard flank

Abdomen - brown dyed ostrich herl, wrapped around the hook shank.

Wing case - I used turkey tail feather. I liked the mottled pattern and I had some

Abdomen - red squirrel dubbing with guard hairs.

Bead - 1/8 tungsten.

I've really been enjoying Euronymphing lately. It is a fun, new way to fish and most importantly, it is effective. That said, I came across this fly as an imitation of a Black Quill nymph for Euronymphing. It is a black quill, right? So it must be black. And therefore it must have a black quill body. While I'm sure this fly catches fish ... I don't think it is because it imitates a black quill nymph. Compare this pattern to the pics.

Hook: Fulling Mill FM50 27 Size 10

Bead: 1/8 tungsten black

Tail: I used black rooster fibers

Body: It calls for black dyed polish quills. I used a combination of stripped peacock quill and a dyed black peacock quill. I coated it with UV glue and zapped it.

Thorax: Black dubbed Rabbit dubbing.

Again, I'm sure this catches fish, and I'm looking forward to using it. But as a black quill?

As I pick flies to showcase, I often choose to select from several of the books I own. I've picked two for this round. Tony Hellekson's book - Fish Flies an Encylopedia of the Fly Tier's Art. It delivers. 719 pages of more flies than you could possibly need. The second book I chose is from is an obscure western "book" called The Fly-Fisher's Manual by Kenn M. Ligas. I love this book. It is more of a binder with plastic folder sheets in it. Must have cost a fortune to produce and market. He had some kind of deal with Scintilla dubbing, so all his flies relate to the "proper" color of scintilla dubbing - identified by the proper Scintilla numbering system. I have to admit, I have this tension between practical easy flies that I fish with vs. overly complicated unnecessary flies often found in the literature. Honestly, that is some of the fun of fly tying right? His subtitle says it all "A new and consummate guide to Matching the Hatch and more" Really - how can you resist that. I love this guy.

Anyway here is a nice nymph I actually like from Hellekson's book.

Hook: Size 10 to 12 Nymph hook - I used a 9672

Thread: Brown

Tail: Mallard flank dyed wood duck

Ribbing: Heavy olive thread - I used kevlar

Abdomen: Dubbed black lamb's wool. Which is an interesting choice given wool is relatively buoyant. I would almost swap for rabbit.

Wing Case; Mottled Brown Turkey Tail Tied over thorax

Thorax - Dubbed black lamb's wool

Legs: Dyed olive speckled Guinea hen barbs. Which I did not have, so I think I just folded the turkey tail barbs down to make the legs.

And here is a nymph from Ligas' book. Complicated to tie, but at least I think he has seen a Leptophlebia nymph:

Hook: A standard nymph hook. I think I used a 3906b in size 10

Thread: Dark Brown

Tails: Barred Wood Duck Flank (or dyed mallard which is what I used)

Abdomen: Scintilla #01 or #29. (I don't think Scintilla exists anymore. I used black rabbit dubbing, which, frankly I think is good enough). But then he ties dark olive marabout along the sides and lashes that down with gold wire. I think this is a clever way to tie the gills, if a little fussy.

Wing case: Again an overly complicated wingcase tied from Scintilla #80 or, I like this, a brown feather section. I used turkey quill.

Thorax: Scintilla #01 or #29 (I used black bunny)

Legs: Olive brown feather fibers. Lacking that I just folded the turkey quill fibers underneath.

Here is a nice Black Quill Emerger from Hellekson's Book

Hook: Standard Dry Fly - I used 94840 size 12-10

Tail: Mallard dyed wood duck - which I tied a little full .. so I will argue that it represent the spent shuck of the nymph rather than the tails .. yeah, that's it.

Body Dubbed Black Rabbit

Legs: Dyed brown mallard barbs. I used the same flank feathers from a hooded merganser. Didn't have to dye them.

Wing Case: Dyed brown marabou, tied as a wing case and then folded back.

How this is supposed to float, I have no idea. Rabbit and ostrich herl are generally not buoyant. If I were to modify it, I'd use CDC rather than ostrich herl and a buoyant synthetic dubbing for the body.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the dun. (Well, I do, somewhere, I just have no idea where as I described in the podcast). Anyway - it struck me that a Black Wulff would make a nice imitation of a dun. Normally the Black Wulff is tied with pink floss for the body, which I couldn't do for a Black Quill Imitation - even tho it may make no difference given fish are seeing the fly back lit from the surface. Anyway - her is my modified version:

Modified Black Wulff

Hook: Standard Dry Fly - 94840 Size 10

Wings: Black buck tail

Tail: Black Duck Tail

Body: Charcoal Dubbing. This charcoal dubbing is particularly difficult to work with. You could also use black floss or a quill body like the following fly if you want to imitate the banded body

Hackle: Black Rooster.

After writing this out, and seeing all the black materials I'm thinking the Johnny Cash Wulff might be a better name.

Here is a nice version of a black quill dun. This is from Hekkelson's book. He has some nice patterns in there. This particular one is almost like a black gnat, but instead of a dubbing body it is stripped peacock quill with silver ribbing.

Hook: Standard dry fly - I used 94840 size 10

Wings: split duck quill

Tail: Black hackle fibers

Ribbing: Silver wire

Body: Stripped peacock Quill

Hackle: Black rooster

I do have a picture (not a great one) of a Black Quill Spinner. This is the specimen I mentioned in the early part of the podcast I collected on the Kennebec River.

Then lastly, here is a spinner imitation from Ligas' book.

Hook: Dry Fly - 94840 Size 10

Tail: Brown Rooster Hackle Fibers

Body: Beaver dubbing. I might choose something darker next time.

Wings: Dun Antron

Alright - with that I'm going to give up. Hope you found this useful!

Hey folks, hope you all enjoy part 2 of our discussion about how insects reproduce. Lots of wild stuff in this. And check out the blog - I added lots of cool pictures that are relevant to both episode 51 and 53. Enjoy!

Hey folks. Normally I record an episode and then develop the blog post based on what I've said. While usually that works well, this time I fell down several rabbit holes which, quite frankly while help with understanding the episodes, don't relate to them directly.

Namely, I found my old slides from 30 to 40 years ago - which include really interesting slides around histology (study of tissues) and other things. It was fun to dive into my compound microscope (for which I rarely use for insect identification) to show you some very cool stuff (like sperm cells, and chromosomes). It's also the case that while there are a million pics like this around the internet, I always like to use my own pictures - so these are from my old slides. Alright - so put on your smarty pants hat, and dig this shit.

OK, first we're going to start with some shots of onion root tissue slices. Teachers love this tissue for teaching about mitosis, because if you think about it, it is growing fast, and hence you are likely to see signs of cell division. To remind you, mitosis is the bread and butter cell division - which we use for growing, healing, replacing cells, etc. This is how cells reproduce on a day to day basis.

So there are a couple of things that are cool about this pic. Note how the nuclear is stained dark blue in most of the cells. That is because the stain binds to the DNA. Since it is dispersed throughout the nucleus, it appears relatively "solid".

But you will also see some cells where the stain forms clumped fibers. Those are cells where they are beginning to divide and the chromosomes (made of DNA) are starting to coalesce.

Then look at this picture:

See how in this picture the chromosomes of certain cells are "lined up". They are ready to split into two cells to form two identical sells. This is mitosis. In contrast, in meiosis, they form to cells with half the number of chromosomes, so they can combine with other sex cells (sperm or eggs) to form a new genetically different cell!

Speaking of chromosomes, check this out. These are chromosomes of Drosophila - or fruit flies - those annoying little flies that appear around your bananas or compost. This banded appearance represents areas of condensed DNA (dark bands). Folks like to make slides of these chromosomes because they form giant chromosomes and are easy to see in a standard light microscope.

OK, so my point is that all of this goes into the production of sex cells, namely sperm and eggs. I don't have any good pictures of the egg producing proces, but here is a picture of human testes - where sperm is produced.

Where what you see are lots of vessels (those clear areas surrounded by cells with stained nuclei. Those vessels are called seminal vesicles and are packed in the testes. The cells around the seminal vesicles (seen with their dark stained nuclei) produce sperm cells (which can often be seen, just not in this uncooperative individual). Those cells are produced via meiosis and turn into sperm cells. They way to think about it is that the outer cells on these seminal vesicles divide via meiosis with the various stages working their way towards the center or open part of the vesicle - where eventually sperm cells are released. Speaking of which, here are some bull sperm cells:

Obviously, these guy follow the typical mammal model - with a head and flagellum. While I don't have a lot of slides with pictures of aquatic insect reproductive organs, I have some for the butterflies and moths. That will give you a sense of the variability across species and why they are useful in identification.

This first one is from a butterfly known as Edward's Hairstreak. At the top is the adeagus (or penis) and the structure below shows the claspers (that the male uses to hold onto the female).

In contrast, this is what a Spicebush Swallowtail male genitalia looks like. Where the claspers are on the top and the penis on the bottom. And then lastly:

This one is from a moth known as an Armyworm - (Pseudoletia unipuncta). Claspers on top, penis on bottom. Looking at something that is more relevant to aquatic insects, here is a close up of the claspers on a Hex mayfly. The claspers are the pincer like organs below the tails:

OK, moving onto females. Unfortunately, I don't have any slides looking at the cells or tissues. But here is a picture of some of the ovipositors that insects use. (Ovipositors, remember, are the egg laying structures.

Here is a female cricket, so you can see the ovipositor sticking out the end.

Similarly, here is a conehead katydid - with a long sword shaped ovipositor.

This is the sawfly I mentioned in the podcast - this is Tremex columba or the pigeon horntail. These guys use that ovipositor to lay eggs in dying trees. There is another wasp, this guy here:

called Megarhyssa - or the long-tailed giant ichneumonid wasp (rolls off the tongue) that uses that crazy long ovipositor to insert eggs into the burrows carved by the larva of the prior wasp to parasitize the young. Incredible, isn't it. Lastly, here is an example of an ovipositor converted into a stinger. This is one of the more dramatic ones. Look how long that sucker is.

This critter is called a velvet ant - even though it is actually a type of solitary wingless wasp. Their other common name is "cow killer" because their stings are so painful. I'm really impressed with that stinger - both in terms of how long it is, but also in terms of how fine it is. Not a fellow to mess with. I think that is everything. I hope you all enjoyed this topic.

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting this out. But here are some pix and patterns for Grey Drakes.

OK, first, I've been practicing my drawing (with all my free time). And while I'm certainly no artist, here is my drawing of a grey drake nymph. Where the things to note are:

Short antennae, setae (or hair) on the inside sides of the cerci (our outer tails). Also note the dark band on the tails. The gills also have a "heart" shaped appearance. Of course, this isn't a great entomological description, but it will be close. And these guys are big - size 10 hook size when they are ready to hatch.

To validate my drawing, here is what an actual critter looks like:

EDIT: as always, after I release the episode, I see a nice specimen. This one is nice in that it lays on it's belly, so you can see it's dorsal side much better.

Remember as I mentioned in the episode that it is useful to think about the background on which these nymphs are found. And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. A light colored nymph on a dark background is going to be trout dinner. Similarly, a dark colored nymph on a light background will be too. Of course, I'm sure the nymphs compensate for this at a certain level by hanging out where they are match this background. But I also believe they can make subtle changes in color to match their background. As noted by the Siphlonurus I saw on the trib to the Swift River. So, as I mentioned a pheasant tail nymph is a good imitation of any swimmer or minnow like minnow. You all know what that looks like, so no need to post a poorly tied pheasant tail - you can look it up on the internet. My issue was how do you lighten a pheasant tail nymph to address variation in nymph color. As I mentioned in the podcast, you bleach the feathers. Which I did, following the directions here: https://www.flyfishing.co.uk/threads/bleaching-pheasant-tails.462451/ I did some pheasant tail and some turkey tail.

Where you can see the variations in time I used in bleaching. Honestly, for these particular guys, the 15 minute timeline is what I think matched these guys the best. But my guess is, what I'm advocating is that no matter what you are imitating it is worth having a selection of light, medium and dark nymphs to match what you see.

Anyway - to show you a fly, this is a "pheasant tail" tied with the 15 minute bleach job (and a bead to replace the peacock herl).

Alternatively, I suggested you could use a One Feather Nymph - by Eric Leiser. Which I have to admit, is one of my favorite patterns - mostly because it only takes on material.

Again, I added a bead to get it down. But basically it is:

Hook: Size 10:

Tail: Wood duck flank feathers

Rib: gold wire

Wing case: Wood duck flank feathers

Thorax: fluff from base of a wood duck flank feather

As I look at this, however, I'm less comfortable with the lightness of the fly for imitating this critter. By chance, I happened to pop a male hooded merganser this fall. While not the tastiest bird, the flank feathers are similar but darker than a wood duck. Hence, here is my one feather fly using a hooded merganser flank feather:

Looking back on it, I would tie it with a bead (and a little neater), but I do like the color and pattern.

OK, let's talk about the adults. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the adults. Nor do I have any a drawing of one (all those veins in the wings intimidate me). EDIT: Of course it always happens after I release an episode - then I come across a nice specimen. So here you are - A grey drake spinner:

But I do have some patterns. Remember I talked about the how the spinner is of most importance. I did want to show you what the grey drake duns looked like that we got with our first batch of flies at the shop. As I mentioned, they are beautiful (except this is my version), but they don't look anything like the insect! As I mentioned, the spinner is the guy you want to imitate. So, here you are - a quill gordon trimmed on the top and bottom:

OK, with that I'll leave it off. Next time we'll talk about more details on sex. It will be a good episode.

Hey Folks, Here is my episode on Grey Drakes - aka Siphlonurus. I'll add content such as pics and patterns to the blog later this weekend. Hope you enjoy the episode!

A deep dive into insect sex. Part 1 is basics. Part 2, coming up, will have more relevance for fly fishing. That said, check our selenesflyshop.com for your fly fishing needs. And aeflyfishing.com should you be interested in hiring me as a guide!

Bibios, Heather Flies, Hawthorn Flies, Blossom Flies, Love Bugs - you name it. An interesting critter that .. for some reason seems more popular in Europe rather than the US. Whazzup with that?

I was thinking about doing this episode having lunch outside one day, and bemoaning the fact that I didn't have any pictures of these guys that I could publish on the blog. At that moment a bibio that landed on the table in front of me. Of course I was too discombobulated to get a picture before it flew off - but I saw that as a good sign to do this episode.

But that said, there are plenty of pictures of these guys on the interweb. For example, here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=56097&verifiable=any As you can see, there is a fair bit of diversity, but note the black or black and red color, the long abdomen, the wings held flat over the body, and the dangley legs. In terms of patterns, one of the old ones I really like is as follows:

• Hook: Size 12 or 14 wet fly hook
• Body: Ostrich herl (or hair from the ear of a black spaniel)
• Wings: Pale Starling slips (or duck, this is starling, altho I've also seen pigeon)
• Hackle: Black starling, or hen hackle

I would bet a leadwing coachman would also be a great imitation. Next is an imitation from New Zealand of a Blossom Fly -

Again, pretty straightforward:

• Hook: 12-14 dry fly
• Body: Peacock Herl
• Rib: Black Cock
• Hackle: Black Cock

And this pattern from Malcolm Greenhalgh:

• Hook: Dry Fly 12-14
• Body: Black Floss
• Rib: Peacock Herl
• Wing: Dun hackle tips
• Hackle: Black cock

And this one, which I like because it imitates the dangly legs:

• Hook: 12-14 dry fly
• Body: Black dyed pheasant herl (or goose)
• Hackle: Black cock
• Legs: Black dyed pheasant herl tied back.
• Or you can do the Fore and Aft:
• Hook: 12-14 dry
• Hackle: Black cock at hook bend
• Body: Thread
• Hackle: Black cock at eye.

As you can see, these are all fairly straightforward flies.