Tuesday, June 24, 2025

June Mayflies

Mayflies in June? I guess that's allowed - the Wikipedia page states that mayflies emerge "from spring to autumn, not necessarily in May, in enormous numbers." This little critter caught my eye whilst taking laundry off the line because of its bulging yellow eyes - they were ... eye-catching.


The way it arches its body, and the protuberances of its eyes, wings and legs (not to mention the 20 mph winds), made it very difficult to get all parts of the body in focus, so I had to make many attempts at capturing it.


This is called a sub-imago stage - it still needs an additional molt until it reaches adulthood (the only insect that molts after sprouting wings).


It's hard to see the mayfly 'give-away' feature - its 2 threadlike tails (cerci) at the end of its abdomen. They appear faintly as a blur in this last pic.
They occur across eastern North America.

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