Mayfly Species Ironodes flavipennis

A dark brown species; wings of female distinctly amber-tinged, very faintly so in male.

Head dark red-brown; frontal portion paler, semi-hyaline; vertex and area around bases of ocelli deep red. Eyes large, almost contiguous apically. Thoracic notum and sternum blackish brown tinged with deep red; pleura paler red-brown. A conspicuous creamy patch anterior to base of fore wing, containing a narrow reddish streak. A distinct red spot above fore coxa, near end of creamy patch. Anterior to base of hind wing is a smaller creamy patch. A reddish oblique line anterior to base of middle leg; all coxae faintly red-tinged. Fore leg blackish brown with olive shading; femur somewhat paler than tibia and tarsus, tinged with reddish brown. Femora of middle and hind legs greenish yellow; tibiae dull olive with smoky tinge; tarsi deep smoky, almost blackish. Wings hyaline; venation very dark brown, except longitudinal veins of costal margin, which are amber-brown. Stigmatic area tinged with smoky brown; remaining portion of costal margin faintly amber-tinged in male, the remainder of wing likewise very pale amber. In female, entire wing quite uniformly tinted with rather deep greenish amber.

Abdominal segments 2-7 semi-hyaline, dark brown with faint red-brown tinge. Anterior margins slightly paler, more yellowish in some specimens. Posterior margins opaque, deeper brown. Pleural fold narrowly dark brown. Segments 8-10 opaque, deeper brown than preceding segments. Sternite 9 brighter red-brown. Tails and genitalia deep black-brown. Penes (see fig. 109) somewhat smaller than in Ironodes nitidus the small ventral spines rather less numerous. Second joint of the forceps slightly more bowed in middle region than in nitidus.

Nymph almost black-brown dorsally, yellowish ventrally; legs concolorous with body, a white mark basally on each femur. Gills purplish black, tracheae indistinct.