Rocky River Trout Unlimited

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    • Fly of the Month Patterns >
      • DRY FLY PATTERNS >
        • Adams Variant
        • Asher
        • Atherton No 5
        • Baigent's Variant
        • Blue Quill
        • BWO
        • BWO Catskill
        • BWO CDC Emerger
        • BWO Sparkle Dun
        • BWO Spinner
        • Carolina Wulff
        • CDC Biot Comparadun
        • CDL Comparadun
        • Coachman Variant
        • Conner's October Caddis
        • Crackleback
        • Dragonfly Dry
        • Dry Pheasant Tail Variant
        • Dun Fly, August Fly,Wasp Fly
        • Early Nelson
        • Egg Laying Caddis
        • Troth Elk Hair Caddis FFI
        • Elk Hair Caddis
        • EZ Caddis
        • Female Adams
        • Fluttering Caddis
        • Ginger Quill
        • Gray Fox Variant
        • Grey Hackle Yellow Dry
        • Griffith's Gnat
        • Hazel Creek
        • Hendrickson
        • H & L Variant
        • Hopper Juan
        • Infallible
        • Japanese Beetle
        • Jassid
        • Jim Charley
        • Klinkhamer
        • Lacewing
        • Light Cahill Catskill
        • Little Green and Little Yellow Stonefly
        • Mr. Rapidan
        • North Carolina Yellow Sally
        • FFI Parachute Adams
        • Parachute Adams
        • Pheasant Tail Dry Fly.Skues
        • Puff Diddy
        • October Caddis
        • Orange Forked Tail
        • Rattler
        • Red Headed Caddis
        • Smoky Mountian Candy
        • Sunkist
        • Trude
        • Rusty Spinner
        • Sulphurs Part 1
        • Sulphur Part 2
        • Yellow Palmer
      • Dry Attractor
      • Midges >
        • Grey Goose Midge Emerger
        • Morgan's Midge
      • Nymphs >
        • Brassie
        • Chironimid
        • Copper John
        • Crossover Nymph
        • Crow Fly
        • Damsel Fly Nymph
        • Deep Sparkle Caddis Pupa
        • Devil's Doorstop
        • Girdle Bug
        • Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear
        • Guinea
        • Hare's Ear Nymph FFI
        • Hot Creek Special
        • Mr. Rapidan
        • Peridgon Nymph
        • BH Prince Nymph FFI
        • BH Prince Nymph
        • Realistic Stonefly
        • Royal Prince
        • Secret Weapon
        • Scud
        • Egan's Tasmanian Devil
        • Tups Indespensible
      • Pupae/Larva
      • Scud >
        • UV Scud
      • Soft Hackles >
        • Center Bead Soft Hackle
        • Grey Hackle Soft hackle
        • Orange Partridge Soft Hackle
      • Terrestrials >
        • Amy's Ant
        • Alen's Cow Killer
        • Cricket
        • Inchworm
        • Jack Cabe Hopper
        • Little River Ant
        • Moth
        • Murray's Flying Beetle
        • Parachute Ant
        • Texas Piss Ant
      • Wet Fly Patterns >
        • Black Gnat
        • Blue Charm FFI
        • Breadcrust
        • Coachman
        • Cock-y-Bundhu
        • Cooper Bug
        • Grizzly King
        • Ibis
        • Parmacheene Belle
        • Orange and Partridge Soft Hackle FFIFFI
        • Red Ass Soft Hackle
        • Tups Indespensible
    • Fly Patterns
    • RRTU Class Recipes
    • NC General Hatch Charts
    • Fly Shops, Outfitters and Guides
    • Fly Fishing >
      • RRTU Reference Fly Tying >
        • Entomology Basics
        • More Entomology Basics
      • More Fly Fishing Basics
      • Fly Fishing Tips
      • Trout Fishing & Trout Fishing Stories
    • Fly Casting
    • History, Reading, References >
      • S. Appalachian & Smoky Mtn History >
        • Archive History >
          • Archive History
          • FORR Campaign >
            • FORR 2020
    • Calendar Copy
  • RRTU Store
  • Tips - Tying
  • Rocky River TU
    • RRTU Events >
      • Monthly Meetings
      • Streamside Day Trips
      • Alarka Trips
      • Fly Tying Classes >
        • Instructional Tyers
    • Davidson River HEP
    • Conservation >
      • Conservation Partners >
        • NC Camo Coalition
    • Diversity >
      • WOMEN ON THE FLY
      • BSA Merit Badge
    • We welcome your feedback!
    • Become a TU Member
    • Mission and Brief History
  • FORR
  • Programs
    • Trout In The Classroom
    • RiverCourse Fly Fishing Youth Camp
    • Casting Carolinas
    • Wilson Creek Adopt-A-Stream and Stream Watch
    • South Mountain Adopt-A-Park
    • Stone Mountain State Park
  • Resources
    • Fly of the Month Patterns >
      • DRY FLY PATTERNS >
        • Adams Variant
        • Asher
        • Atherton No 5
        • Baigent's Variant
        • Blue Quill
        • BWO
        • BWO Catskill
        • BWO CDC Emerger
        • BWO Sparkle Dun
        • BWO Spinner
        • Carolina Wulff
        • CDC Biot Comparadun
        • CDL Comparadun
        • Coachman Variant
        • Conner's October Caddis
        • Crackleback
        • Dragonfly Dry
        • Dry Pheasant Tail Variant
        • Dun Fly, August Fly,Wasp Fly
        • Early Nelson
        • Egg Laying Caddis
        • Troth Elk Hair Caddis FFI
        • Elk Hair Caddis
        • EZ Caddis
        • Female Adams
        • Fluttering Caddis
        • Ginger Quill
        • Gray Fox Variant
        • Grey Hackle Yellow Dry
        • Griffith's Gnat
        • Hazel Creek
        • Hendrickson
        • H & L Variant
        • Hopper Juan
        • Infallible
        • Japanese Beetle
        • Jassid
        • Jim Charley
        • Klinkhamer
        • Lacewing
        • Light Cahill Catskill
        • Little Green and Little Yellow Stonefly
        • Mr. Rapidan
        • North Carolina Yellow Sally
        • FFI Parachute Adams
        • Parachute Adams
        • Pheasant Tail Dry Fly.Skues
        • Puff Diddy
        • October Caddis
        • Orange Forked Tail
        • Rattler
        • Red Headed Caddis
        • Smoky Mountian Candy
        • Sunkist
        • Trude
        • Rusty Spinner
        • Sulphurs Part 1
        • Sulphur Part 2
        • Yellow Palmer
      • Dry Attractor
      • Midges >
        • Grey Goose Midge Emerger
        • Morgan's Midge
      • Nymphs >
        • Brassie
        • Chironimid
        • Copper John
        • Crossover Nymph
        • Crow Fly
        • Damsel Fly Nymph
        • Deep Sparkle Caddis Pupa
        • Devil's Doorstop
        • Girdle Bug
        • Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear
        • Guinea
        • Hare's Ear Nymph FFI
        • Hot Creek Special
        • Mr. Rapidan
        • Peridgon Nymph
        • BH Prince Nymph FFI
        • BH Prince Nymph
        • Realistic Stonefly
        • Royal Prince
        • Secret Weapon
        • Scud
        • Egan's Tasmanian Devil
        • Tups Indespensible
      • Pupae/Larva
      • Scud >
        • UV Scud
      • Soft Hackles >
        • Center Bead Soft Hackle
        • Grey Hackle Soft hackle
        • Orange Partridge Soft Hackle
      • Terrestrials >
        • Amy's Ant
        • Alen's Cow Killer
        • Cricket
        • Inchworm
        • Jack Cabe Hopper
        • Little River Ant
        • Moth
        • Murray's Flying Beetle
        • Parachute Ant
        • Texas Piss Ant
      • Wet Fly Patterns >
        • Black Gnat
        • Blue Charm FFI
        • Breadcrust
        • Coachman
        • Cock-y-Bundhu
        • Cooper Bug
        • Grizzly King
        • Ibis
        • Parmacheene Belle
        • Orange and Partridge Soft Hackle FFIFFI
        • Red Ass Soft Hackle
        • Tups Indespensible
    • Fly Patterns
    • RRTU Class Recipes
    • NC General Hatch Charts
    • Fly Shops, Outfitters and Guides
    • Fly Fishing >
      • RRTU Reference Fly Tying >
        • Entomology Basics
        • More Entomology Basics
      • More Fly Fishing Basics
      • Fly Fishing Tips
      • Trout Fishing & Trout Fishing Stories
    • Fly Casting
    • History, Reading, References >
      • S. Appalachian & Smoky Mtn History >
        • Archive History >
          • Archive History
          • FORR Campaign >
            • FORR 2020
    • Calendar Copy
  • RRTU Store
  • Tips - Tying
Picture


Entomology Basics
(or Amateur Bug knowledge)

Stream Entomology
Entomology is the study of insects. To pursue trout, we are primarily interested in aquatic insects.

About the (Characteristic) Keys
Keys are a way of keying in on certain characteristics of an insect. These characteristics can tell you what stage of life the insects in then the order and family the insect is from. To get to the genus and species level you will need an adult insect. While using the keys you must pay close attention to the description and not weight your final evaluation on the illustrations. With this first set of keys you should be able to get to the order of the insect you have found. We will strive to have a full set of keys identifying the families of common aquatic insects over time.

Collection of Aquatic Insects
To collect aquatic insects from streams in North Carolina requires a permit. If you ignore this regulation please be careful not to collect to frequently at the same location it may have serious effects on the ecology.

Usefull websites for identifying "bugs" includes www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/, www.west-fly-fishing.com then select Entomology, www.flyfishingnc.com then select Fly-Bug, www.flytying123.com then select Entomology and www.flycraftangling.com then select Entomology.
Picture
LARVA
Picture
PUPA
Picture
NYMPH
Picture
ADULT
Insect Life Stages

LARVA

The larval stage of an insect may look grub or worm like. It will have no wing pads and may or may not have jointed legs. Some larva make homes of sticks and rocks which they carry with them (cases). Go to larva stage.

PUPA

In the pupal state wings will be partially developed. The legs of a pupa maybe fused to its body or they may dangle free very close to the body. Some pupa can be found in cocoons attached to rocks on the stream bottom. Go to pupa stage.
 
NYMPH
In the nymphal stage the wings will be partially developed and cover by wing pads (wing case). The legs are position for crawling and the insect will be active and freely moving. Nymphs will not be found in cases or cocoons. Go to nymph stage.

ADULT


Adult insects usually have fully developed wings or have wings which are covered ba hard shell like a beetle. The adult insect will have 3 pairs of jointed legs. Go to adult stage.
Insect Metamorphisis

“All those things I was taught in school that I didn’t need to know.”

Insects

In the next few paragraphs, we will be talking about insects, most importantly aquatic insects. First things first, what’s an insect? In the grand scheme of living things man breaks down everything into categories. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species; is any of this sounding familier yet?

In the animal kingdom under the Phylum Arthropoda there is a Class called Insecta.

In order to be in the Insecta Class the "bug" must have:
3 body parts (head, thorax, & abdomen)      
3 pairs of jointed legs                   
1 or 2 pairs of wings      
1 pair of antennae   
and absolutely no legs on your abdomen

Identifying insects gets complicated because they change. Not just a little change but great big ones. Aquatic insects go from being water breathing bottom crawlers to air breathing flies. Kind of like a butterfly but the catapillar lives under water. This is called Metamorphosis, which means change. In aquatic insects there are two kinds of Metamorphosis, complete metamorphosis and incomplete metamorphosis.
Complete Metamorphosis

Insects that have complete metamorphosis go through four different stages. Those stages are egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The aquatic insects that go through complete metamorphosis are (listed common name first, then order):
Caddisflies – Trichopter
Midges – Diptera
Dobsonflies – Megaloptera
Alderflies – Megaloptera
Aquatic Moths – Lepidoptera
Aquatic Beetles – Coleoptera

Incomplete Metamorphosis

Insects that have incomplete metamorphosis go through three different stages. Those stages are egg, nymph, and adult. The aquatic insects that go through incomplete metamorphosis are (listed common name first, then order):
Stoneflies – Plecoptera
Mayflies – Ephemeroptera
Dragonflies – Odonata
Damselflies – Odonata
Picture
Complete Metamorphosis adult<--pupa<--larva<--egg
.
Picture
Incomplete Metamorphosis adult<--nymph,--egg
The following is detailed descriptions of each stage of metamorphosis in the life stages of insects

Larvae Stage
Picture

Caddisfly, Order: Trichoptera

Caddis larvae can be free-living or live in cases. Caddis larvae will make their cases from sticks, gravel and sand. The free-living larvae seldom have gills that are along the sides of their abdomen.

Picture

Midges,
Order: Diptera

Midge larvae look like long slender maggots. The rear of their body will have either gills, 
hairs, prolegs or breathing tubes. They will not have segmented legs.

Picture
Hellgrammites or Dobsonfly, Order: Megaloptera

The dobsonfly larva (hellgrammite) has many filamentous appendages on each side of his abdomen. Their back end is forked with two hooks on each tail. Hellgrammites will have six jointed legs on their thorax and large pinchers for mouth parts. Hellgramites are dark brown or black in color. The underside of the abdomen will have gill tufts. Pupa develop out of water. Can be confused with the fishfly.

Picture

Alderfly,
Order: Megaloptera

Alderflies have a single feathery tail. The abdomen has strand like appendages extending from each side. The thorax has six jointed legs and large pinchers for mouth  parts. Pupa develop out of water.

Picture

Fishfly,
Order: Megaloptera

The fishfly has many filamentous appendages on each side of his abdomen. Their back end is forked with two hooks on each tail. Fishflies will have six jointed legs on their thorax and large pinchers for mouth parts. Fishflies are light in color. The underside of the abdomen is smooth with no gill tufts. Pupa develop out of water. Can be confused with the hellgrammite.

Picture

Aquatic Moth,
Order: Lepidoptera

Aquatic moth larvae will usually be found on the sides of rocks covered with a silken blanket. They will have several sets of prolegs on their abdomen which when viewed through a magnifier will have tiny hooks on the end called crochets.

Picture

Beetle, Order: Coleoptera

Aquatic beetle larvae (second illustrations from the left) cling to aquatic vegetation and predate on eggs and other larva. Beetle larvae most often seen by anglers is the terrestrial "grub" which are the other forms in the illustration.

Pupa Stage
Picture

Caddisfly,
Order: Trichoptera

Caddis pupa have antennae that are as long or longer than their body. The legs of the caddis
will be dangling free and not fused to their body. Caddis may also be found in cases.

Picture





Midges,
Order: Diptera

Midges or true flies have short antennae on their head. Midges will have only 1 set of wing pads. The tip of the abdomen may have gills or breathing tubes.

Picture

Aquatic Moth,
Order: Lepidoptera

The legs and antennae of a moth pupae will be fused to the body. The entire pupa may be found inside a silken cocoon. Two pairs of developing wings (wingpads) should be presant. A moth pupae will have no gills present.

Nymph Stage
Picture

Mayfly,
Order: Ephemeroptera

Mayflies typically have plate-like gills that are located on the side of their abdomen. They will have 6 jointed legs that end in 1 claw. Most mayfly nymphs have 3 tails.

Picture

Stonefly,
Order: Plecoptera
 
Stoneflies have no gills on their abdomen. If gills are present they will be found on the underside of the head and thorax. Stoneflies have 6 legs that end in 2 claws.  Stoneflies will have 2 short tails.

Picture





Dragonfly,
Order: Odonata

Dragonflies have no tails. A dragonfly's body is squat and stout. They have large mouth parts.

Picture

Damselfly,
Order: Odonata

Damselflies have 3 leaf-like tails. A damselfly 's body is long and slender.

Adult Stage
Picture
Picture

Mayfly,
Order: Ephemeroptera

If the wings stand upright at rest and there is a small set of hind wings its probably a mayfly. Mayfies can have 2 or 3 tails.

Picture

Caddisfly,
Order: Trichoptera
 
Caddis have tent-like wings that are covered with fine hairs. They may also have very long antennae. Go to caddis larva.

PictureStonefly (B. Newton, 2004)


Stonefly,
Order: Plecoptera
 
Stoneflies have wings that lie flat on their body when they are at rest. Stoneflies only have 2 tails which are sometimes very short.

Picture



Dragonfly,
Order: Odonata

A dragonfly’s abdomen is very long and slender. Its wings will lay flat out perpendicular to its sides.

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Note: The Seth Green Trout Unlimited Chapter was gracious to allow us to use much of their entomology web pages. A majority of the illustrations you will see on these pages were drawn by Rick Harrington. He is a professional illustrator. If you wish to use the illustrations for any reason you must ask permission first. The contact information for Rick Harrington is 716-346-0772. All of the Illustrations found here are original or used with permission. The Izaak Walton League of America has graciously allowed the use their images from their Stream Study website. Their web site contains a good set of macroinvertabrate keys. Ken Manual is considered our Chapter entomologist.

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