In Pa. there are 4 distinct color and sizes of green drakes. Penns is one, pine is one and I know Lyman run has one. not sure where the forth is though. Most times the same pattern can be used for all just adjust the size of the fly..first is off of pine second off of Lyman

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Great pics!

I did not know about the 4 different size/color variations. Interesting. I've encountered Drakes on about a dozen PA streams.

In western PA (Allegheny drainage mostly), Hex's are much more common and produce similarly huge hatches and spinner falls, but a lot of people incorrectly call them Green Drakes too. Drakes have 3 tails, Hex's have 2.

A few more pics:
Funny thing about the green drake hatch this year on pine was they were hatching in the evening and the spinners were falling in the early morning. Fished a mile stretch with only 4 other people..You can see the fly is a size 10 easy. The further up Pine you fish the smaller they get. I have fished size 8 here most times.

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Lyman run spinner size 12:

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I was aware of size and color variation from place to place. But most bugs have that. I never thought of them as "distinct" populations, but rather more of a continuous scale. If they are distinct, it kind of leads you to a subspecies thought process.

I certainly believe ya though. You got the data!

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The Hex's off the Allegheny and other Western PA rivers are HUGE. They're a solid 2-3 hook sizes bigger than the Penns Green Drakes. I'll try to do some recon and take some pictures this year of them if I can catch them.

I've ran into much smaller Hex's on smaller waters in the Allegheny drainage, though. Like 12's. Which is still a HUGE bug for those streams. But those are the streams where you're much more likely to find trout, and yeah, I had good fishing to them.

I know downtown Pittsburgh gets a hex hatch that makes the papers every year. You see them flying around at PNC Park too. Also, I used to work at a steel mill on the Kiski River, and there'd be a few days each year where the mill bridge would get covered with them and cause accidents. Street light on bridge, bugs attracted to light, fall dead on road. I also remember going to a rodeo at Crooked Creek in June a few years back. The lights attracted a swarm, which burnt up like a giant skeeter zapper when they touched it. Fried Hex's falling dead on the crowd. They eventually roped off that area of the stands, and moved the date for subsequent years!

Everyone called them green drakes. I didn't have much luck convincing them otherwise. But they are indeed Hex's.

http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20010608mayflies0608p2.asp

http://ulocal.wtae.com/_Mayflies/photo/9806425/62962.html

^^look at that mountain of dead bugs!

http://ulocal.wtae.com/_mayfliesjpg/photo/9806397/62962.html

http://bugguide.net/node/view/326392

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/leadertimes/s_463301.html

Here are the ones that can be found on Penn's Creek, Centre County:

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Here's a green drake dun from Kettle Creek:

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Hex over here?! Do they hatch on Oil Creek? Could ya show me a pict pcray1231? I would so love to fish for some trout w hex or green drakes for that matter.
Thanks
I had to get a new username as it wouldn't let me log on.
Greg

I don't have any pics of hex's, no. Post #9 linked pictures of hex's in PA, see above, those are ALL Pittsburgh area stories, and they are hex's, not drakes.

Yes, I have personally witnessed monster hex hatches on the river and some of it's big tribs. And I've also witnessed hex's in lesser numbers on smaller waters.

I have never seen a hex on Oil Creek. That doesn't mean it doesn't have em, it seems like it should be ideal, and there are certainly streams nearby that do have them. I've seen a couple on Tionesta and I was told second hand that Brokenstraw gets em, and I've personally fished over wild trout rising eagerly to hex's in a stream system that runs into the Allegheny not far from Oil City.

there are some Hex pics in the "photos" section of PAFF. There were some other type of drake that hatched, in much smaller numbers, on the Allegheny well after the Hex's were done last year. They were smaller than the Hex's and mottled brown. I was surprised at the variety of mayflies hatching on the Allegheny. Not huge hatches but sulphurs, every type of cahill, BWO's (the bigger ones, Drunella lata I think), Hex's, a few slate drakes, caenis (thanks jay), at least one trico, etc. Too bad there aren't any trout.

NOM, sand, heritage, jack nice pics.

There are a few streams in the Poconos that have a dark green drake, is that the other GD you are asking about Sandfly?
A population doesn't make it a distiction to a subspecies, it would have to have something more than just size to make that distinction. Such as a life history difference. Size varies in these things because of differences in the chemistry of the water and amount of food, it also cause some color differences.