Small Western Green Drake (Flav)
The Flav looks much like the larger Western Green Drake. The only real difference is the
size of the two mayflies. The Western Green Drakes are larger but only by a hook size or
two. The nymphs are fairly easy to distinguish but the duns are not. It makes little
difference to anglers except for hook size and some differences in their behavior.
The Small Western Blue-winged Olives common names includes three species of
mayflies from the Drunella genus that are common in the West. The most common
species, the favilinea, is usually just referred to as "Flavs". This is about as close a
many anglers ever get in using the Latin name of an insect. Whatever you call them,
these are important mayflies in most western trout streams. In some ways they may be
more important to anglers than the larger more famous green drake, the Drunella
grandis. They are usually more wide spread, plentiful and hatch over a longer period of
time than the big green drakes.
There is are two other species, the spinifera and the coloradensis, that are also smaller
Western Green Drakes that are included in this same group of mayflies. The Flavs hatch
well after the Green Drakes hatch on any one stream but it is possible to have a hatch of
flavs occurring before the Green Drakes hatch on different streams in the West due to
the difference in drainage and elevation.
Copyright 2008 James Marsh
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