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I feel ALMOST certain that I have a picture of a MAYFLY upon my Poppy
Mayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera (from the Greek ephemeros = "short-lived", pteron = "wing", referring to the short life span of adults). They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Paleoptera, which also contains the dragonflies and damselflies. They are aquatic insects whose immature stage (called naiad or, colloquially, nymph) usually lasts one year in fresh water. The adults are short-lived, from a few hours to a few days depending on the species. About 2,500 species are known worldwide, including about 630 species in North America. Common names for mayflies include "dayfly", "shadfly", "Green Bay Flies", "Canadian soldier", and "fishfly" [1].The mayfly belongs to group 1 taxa, or pollution–sensitive animals. This means if mayflies are in or around the water, the water should be of a good quality.
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Click to enlarge so you can see the Mayfly
YouTube has This Video of a MAYFLY …how awesome is that?
Mayflies of West Virginia
25 comments:
Great Macro, very sharp, yup see it too after enlarge, nice one.
Come visit and see the reflection.
wow...so little :D
Please check out mine Thanks
nice shot, you must have great camera :D
Will you visit mine Thanks
Oh wow, i have never heard of seen of a may fly before nice capture here
I don't know if I've ever seen one but I'm still admiring this macro shot of the poppy!
WOW - that is quite the talented camera work! Great job with this.
Wow! I am surprised that you saw it, much less were able to photograph it. Was that with a special macro lens? I have to look into those.
My camera is just a digital Canon PowerShot S2 IS…great camera with Photoshop does wonders
When I looked at my photos of the Poppy...I zoomed in adn saw that Mayfly, I was surprised actually. Then I simply enlarged and cropped it Thanks for your alls lively comments
Well, I believe you do!
Great close up! Good job.
Wonderful picture. Look how well he suits his environment.
Wonderful catch!
So tiny! But great photo.
You have an excellent camera! After enlarging the pic, I believe you have captured a mayfly. Very cool!
How did you even see it, it so tiny. Very cool!
Good eye!
Fishing Bait
Must be the Fisher WOman in me, ;)
The spring hatch, from about March 15 to the end of May, begins with the Skwalla Stonefly. #10 Olive Stone with a low profile pattern such as an olive bullethead will work well. The Little Brown and Black Stonefly hatch follows the Skwalla Stonefly hatch closely. During this hatch, it is best to fish with brown or black bodied bulletheads. Blue winged olive hatches are next and the best flies to use during this hatch are olive bodied mayfly parachutes, cripples and thorax with olive dubbing. Grey Drakes are hatching at this time also. Flies to use have a yellowish to brown body and huge wings, such as deerhair post parachutes. Salmonfly, an orange stonefly also starts hatching the second and third week of May.
http://www.critterzone.com/magazineresource/magazine-article-mayfly-shadfly-Ephemerida-may-flies.htm
http://www.earthlife.net/insects/ephemer.html
Yep there it is. :) I think.. my son learned to tie flies in school a few years ago and has been hooked ever since.. I have seen these in flyfishing.. thanks for sharing
It looks so much like a mosquito to me. I can't tell. I was in a mayfly hatch along the Mississippi one year. It was fantastic! They were everywhere particularly near the street lights. And piled up in heaps underneath. I loved your poppy pictures as well as the spring woods coming into leaf. Oh, how I could go for some home grown aspargus. The photos make me drool!!
Well spott Dee... sure looks like one.. the you tube vid is very good.. I have seen it before.. but it's still a great one.
Shadfly..I don't like them..
Shad Season is Coming!
As the end of June nears, residents of North Bay on Lake Nipissing, Canada anticipate those lazy, hazy days of summer. With less eagerness, do they look forward to the annual onslaught of the notorious shadfly. The substrate of Lake Nipissing is the perfect habitat for the larvae of these harmless winged insects.
Each year as summer temperatures reach their peak, shadfly nymphs emerge from the lake in droves. Attracted to land by the light of the moon, the "shads" natural mating patterns are somewhat altered as the foiled shads dance in circles around city streetlights. After a warm summers night, residents will wake up to vehicles that have become an overnight resting post for these fine-winged insects.
The unmistakable sound of crunching shadflies signifies the beginning of summer as the insects are too numerous to dodge while going about business on city sidewalks. A leisurely bicycle ride on a warm evening during shadfly season becomes an exercise in breathing with one's mouth closed to avoid an unwanted insect meal. Roadways become hazardous as crawling masses of these night-flyers congregate underneath the brightest street lights forming a slippery film between tire and asphalt.
The end of the 2-3 week shadfly emergence is found to be the most obnoxious. Insects which have been swept into heaps by city shopkeepers foul the city air as peak summer temperatures speed up the decomposition process. The lakes appeal is lost to prospective swimmers looking for relief from the heat as they are faced with the stench of shadfly corpses littering the shore.
The saving grace of this winged storm is the lack of biting or sucking mouthparts. Unlike the itch inspiring mosquito and black-fly, the shadfly is only a menace to man because of its emergence in astronomical numbers.
So what purpose do these somewhat benign insects serve? For starters, the shadfly is an extremely important source of food for the walleye population of Lake Nipissing. In the years when a decline in the shadfly population is noticed, there is warranted concern for the health of the fishery in the following year.
The larvae of the shadfly live as a nymph or `naiad' in the substrate of ponds, lakes and streams. The genus Hexagenia, common to Lake Nipissing spends 2-3 years as a nymph. It is during this time that the shadfly feeds as the adults do not have functioning mouthparts. Therefore, all growth occurs in the nymph stage in preparation for an eventual emergence to mate. The shads usually emerge during the end of June when water temperatures near maximum. Shadflies are sexually dimorphous, meaning there is a male and a female sex. During flight, the female deposits her fertilized eggs as she drags her abdomen across the surface of the water. Molting occurs only once in the short 2-3 day life of the adult shadfly before re-entering the food chain as life-giving nutrition for other organisms.
-Cheers.
I forgot the source,
my article is from this website:
http://www.venturenorth.com/livres.htm
-Cheers.
WOW and a MAJOR Thank YOU to guild-rez…
SHADFLY ummmmmm I REALLY appreciate your input. Now I feel much better because I was not 100% positive I had identified it correctly. Again Guild MANY thanks.
So what I am understand the Mayfly and the Shadfly are one in the same, just different names within the species?
So I can hear them CRUNCHING, that is so interesting to know. Great article I learned even more, which is always a good thing…
I LOVE capturing shots of bugs!
Great job!
Good eye to see that and get a decent photo of the critter. When I first looked at it, my impression was it was actually a Midge. But I can't see the antenna to well. They do look feathery which would lead me in that direction. In any case, good shot. 8v)
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