Hi All

On the Irfon today, water was a little on the brown and quite cold to start with, but by about 2pm I was amazed when I came out of the water to talk to Simon, my waders were covered in very small up wings, there were hundreds of them, but even stranger, very few rises.

Amazing sight, the picture really doesn't do it justice.

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Might they be female baetid spinners crawling down your leg to lay their eggs subsurface?

I can't tell from here.

.D.

HI D

You could very well be right as there didn't seem to be that many above the water line on my legs, I was going to get my big book of insect life out to try and get a better idea of what they are, in hook size they would of been around a 18 - 20.

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It looks like the wings are pretty clear and the tails longer than you might expect on a dun. Pale Watery or Small Dark Olive spinner might be my best guess. I don't think the females of a lot of these baetids can be told apart easily, if at all.

Might even be Iron Blues, the Little Claret Spinner; though they seem quite pale overall in the picture.

.D.

They could be small spurwings (Centroptilum luteolum), although, as .D. says, its very hard tell.

As far as I'm aware Small Spurwings lay their eggs at the surface, so we may be able to rule them out. Of course, there could be more than one species there at once!

Cheers,

.D.

Hi All

Thanks for the input, they all have 2 tails and the body colour is a a pale olive the wings looked more of a natural CDC grey than clear.

As you say with the Ephemeroptera group is vast and sometimes hard to tell apart, as murtol said little spur wings came to mind to me, but hard to say, I will see if I blow the pic of one up how clear it comes.

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Good thesis .D.

Sage
Quickly....back to the river and throw your boots in....they must be full of eggs

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Hi Sedgeking.

It is quite amazing some times what you see on the river, I remenber last year on the Wye in mid April the grannom were all over your waders, in a fold of your waders you would peel it back and there would be 30-40 all squashed in it, really nice to see.

Andrew

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Hi Sage

Did you feel guilty of depriving them of sanctuary when you 'emerged'.

The joy of being at one with the river....becomming part of the environment and being accepted.

Or am just getting too poetical now

Either that or ....'any port in a storm'

Its happened to me so I prefer the first one

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Two things to have in life - A good bed and a good pair of boots -and if you aren't in one you should be in t'other