Mayfly Species Caenis punctata (Angler's Curses)

A species with relatively short forceps; mesonotum yellow-brown; head shaded with purplish.

Head with purplish shading on a pale ground color, the whole vertex appearing somewhat ruddy; eyes black, antennae pale. Pronotum pale yellowish; median portion shaded heavily with blackish, lateral areas paler; margins with a strong black border. Mesonotum yellowish brown; posterior portion paler, with black streaks and dots; a black V-mark anterior to the scutellum, outlining the sutures. Black shading on the metanotum. Pleura yellowish brown; a blackish streak and shading anterior to the wing root; some black shading over the episternum; heavy black streaking around the bases of the legs and below the wing roots. Sternum pale. Fore legs with blackish shading basally; coxa and trochanter mostly pale with slight black streaks; femur deep smoky, a blackish band at the apex and traces of a median one; tibia and tarsus pale whitish, faintly tinged with smoky. Middle and hind legs whitish; femora with a slight sprinkling of small black dots, and a dark apical band, also traces of a median band, especially on the middle leg; coxae and trochanters each with a black spot; hind tibia with an occasional black dot basally. Wings semi-hyaline whitish, subcosta and radius dark.

Abdomen pale yellowish, the tergites suffused with blackish, much as in Caenis diminuta; median areas of tergites 1 and 2, and 7-10, pale; traces of a black dotted mid-dorsal line on 1-3; black stigmatic dots or dashes on each segment; a median black dot on tergite 9, and several minute black dashes on 10. Sternites pale; a pair of prominent black dots, obliquely arranged, on each side of sternites 7-9, the outer dot visible also on the preceding sternites; black streaks along the lateral margins. Forceps and tails pale. Forceps short, broad at the base, and narrowed considerably about halfway to the tip, so that the inner margin is strongly curved (see Pl. XXXIX).

The black apical femoral band is similar to that of C. diminuta; it is separable from that species by reason of the black dots on the femora, the darker thorax, and the curved forceps. It is close to C. delicata (now a synonym of Caenis latipennis), but smaller; the latter species likewise lacks the black apical band on the femur, which is reduced to a streak on the dorsal area.