Ephemeroptera
Sign in to saveMayflies (also up-winged flies or up-wing flies, or drake-flies in the UK; shadflies or fishflies in Canada) are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. Over 3,000 species of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 genera in 42 families.
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Mayflies are aquatic insects belonging to an ancient group of insects that also includes dragonflies and damselflies, with over 3,000 known species found worldwide. They matter because they represent a long-established lineage of insects and are distributed across numerous species and families, making them a significant part of aquatic ecosystems globally.
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Article
24 sectionsContents
- Description
- Nymph
- Subimago
- Imago
- Biology
- Reproduction and life cycle
- Flight
- Ecology
- Effects on ecosystem functioning
- Distribution
- Conservation
- Taxonomy and phylogeny
- Phylogeny
- In human culture
- In art
- In literature
- In fly fishing
- As a spectacle
- As food
- As a name for ships and aircraft
- Other human uses
- Notes
- References
- External links
Mayflies (also up-winged flies or up-wing flies, or drake-flies in the UK; shadflies or fishflies in Canada) are aquatic insects belonging to the order Ephemeroptera. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies. Over 3,000 species of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 genera in 42 families.
Mayflies have ancestral traits that were probably present in the first flying insects, such as long tails and wings that do not fold flat over the abdomen. Their immature stages are aquatic fresh water forms (called "naiads" or "nymphs"), whose presence indicates a clean, unpolluted and highly oxygenated aquatic environment. They are unique among insect orders in having a fully winged terrestrial preadult stage, the subimago, which moults into a sexually mature adult, the imago.