Mayfly Species Leucrocuta hebe (Little Yellow Quills)

Mesonotum olive brown; cross veins of costal margin and some in disc of wing distinctly margined with dark brown; tergites largely deep brown, paler dorsally; genitalia of the maculipennis type (now a synonym of Leucrocuta maculipennis) (see fig. 97).

Frontal portion of head pale yellow; a dark streak along base of frontal shelf. Vertex deep brown, posterior margin darker. Antennal filament dusky at base, tip pale. Pronotum yellowish in median area, shaded heavily with blackish laterally, and with two short black lateral stripes. Mesonotum olive-brown, with slight ochreous shading; metanotum dark red-brown, with two dark transverse streaks near center. Pleura light yellow; a broad brownish lateral stripe above the bases of the legs. Sternum light yellow. Fore coxae and bases of femora yellowish; femora pale brownish apically, with a dark streak near apex on ventral edge; tibiae often yellowish basally, pale brown apically, tip darker brown; tarsi pale brown. Wings hyaline; costal border tinged with brown. Cross veins of the costal and subcostal spaces quite heavily margined with dark brown, especially before the bulla; at the bulla, several cross veins in the first 7 or 8 spaces are slightly margined, and at the fork of the posterior branch of the radial sector is a small brown cloud. Other cross veins of the disc more or less margined; all cross veins of fore wing dark brown, heavier than the paler brown longitudinal veins. 5 to 6 costal cross veins before bulla, about 12 beyond it.

Abdominal tergites deep brown, the dorsal portions of 4-6 semihyaline whitish, often also base of 7; pale submedian streaks on other tergites; lateral margins pale smoky, on 2-7. Tergites 8-10 opaque, reddish brown, lateral margins yellowish. Sternites pale yellowish, 8 and 9 opaque. Forceps and tails pale yellowish. Penes of the maculipennis. Innermost pair of spines longer than in any other species of this group.

The dark abdominal tergites and the longer spines on the penes separate this species from others of the maculipennis group. It is probably most nearly allied to H. aphrodite (now a synonym of Leucrocuta aphrodite).