9 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT
Ep. 55 Pics and Patterns for Metamorphosis Pt. 1
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!
