Mayfly Species Brachycercus nitidus (Angler's Curses)

Mesonotum dark reddish brown; fore femur light olive brown; abdomen purplish , tergites 7-10 yellowish.

The male imago is not known. Head of female light yellowish brown; median carina and anterior portion of vertex purplish black; eyes black; ocelli pearl-grey, black-ringed at base; antennae whitish. Pronotum dark purplish brown, paler laterally. Mesonotum dark reddish brown, a paler strip on each side of the median line; sutures blackish. Metanotum purplish. Pleura light brown; darker red-brown between the middle and hind legs. Sternum light brown shaded with purple; sutures purplish black; anterior portion of mesonotum heavily shaded with purple. Fore femur longer than tibia and tarsus combined; light olive brown, margined with dark brown; tarsus whitish, tibia same color as femur. Femora of middle and hind legs similar to first; tibiae yellowish; tarsi whitish. Wings greyish white; subcosta and radius purplish except at tip; longitudinal veins of anterior portion of wing purplish grey basally.

Abdominal tergites 1-3 purplish black; 4-6 purplish grey in median area, greyish white laterally; posterior margins lavender. Tergites 7-9 greyish yellow; posterior margins and median line greyed lavender; 10 yellowish brown, purplish medially and on posterior margin. Sternites 1-6 purplish, finely mottled with very tiny pale dots; posterior margins darker purple; two larger light spots, indistinct, near center of sternite 1; lateral margins greyish lavender. Sternites 7-9 yellowish; 8 with brown shading. Tails greyish white, tinged faintly with lavender at base.

Nymph with a prominent tubercle on each side of the pronotum, situated anterolaterally. Thoracic notum dark reddish brown, with blackish pencilings. Legs yellowish, with no darker markings. Abdomen reddish brown dorsally, somewhat paler ventrally. Tails yellow at base, amber brown distally. This species is larger than B. flavus (now a synonym of Sparbarus flavus) and B. prudens (now a synonym of Susperatus prudens); likewise it is much darker in color. It is darker than B. idei (now a synonym of Sparbarus lacustris), another large species, and with different markings. The nymph differs from B. lacustris (now a synonym of Sparbarus lacustris) in possessing tubercles on the prothorax; the color is darker, color pattern different; tibiae and tarsi unbanded.