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3. First post: Mayfly to identify please

Hello,

Here are some pictures of a Mayfly I photographied last June 25th in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada (near Vermont).

Do you have any idea about the family/genum/species???

I suspect a Heptageniidae, maybe Maccaffertium but I'm not sure...

Any ideas???

Thank you!

Michel

It is Maccaffertium. I forget which species have transparent abdomens apart from terminatum. It looks very similar to that one but I vaguely remember something about the character of the dark posterior band on the tergites being necessary to distinguish it from some other very close species or another, and yours isn't banded in quite the same way as my terminatum specimen. It's close, though. That could be it.

Michel-

My guess would be Maccaffertium mediopunctatum mediopunctatum, the one formerly classified as Stenonema nepotellum. However, another possibility would be M. pulchellum, as both have stigmatic dots, and are present in Quebec.

I absolutly cannot help with the identification, but those are Incredible pictures! Beautiful

Mike

Hey guys, I think I saw one of these little buggers today - and much to my surprise. I was working on a tree survey along the lower Rouge River - one of the common responsibilities of my job - and a tiny little thing very strongly resembling this insect landed on the screen of my GPS datalogger (might actually be M. terminatum - looked at those pictures too). Having looked at these photos last night or the night before, I knew what I had sitting in front of me. I have my doubts that it actually came out of the river - it is TERRIBLY polluted with raw sewage overflow on a very regular basis (this is in fact why I am working out there - we are doing a natural resources assessment of the area in anticipation of some major sewer infrastructure improvements to keep the SHIT out of the river!). This site is actually in the middle of the Dearborn Hills Golf Course, and there are several ponds nearby. So, anybody know anything about the ecology of these critters? Are they stillwater insects, tolerant of warm nutrient-rich waters? I don't know of ANY higher-quality waters in the area. (I also saw a toad along the river, which I found reassuring - amphibians are "canaries in the coal mine" when it comes to aquatic ecosystems.)

Also, I must comment: WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CREATURE!!! (The MAYFLY that is, not the toad, although I find them rather cute - sort of what a human might look like if they could live to be around 500 years old).

Jonathon

P.S. Excellent photographs as well!

Thank you all for helping me to identify this mayfly!

It is really appreciated!

Thank you also for your comments about the pictures...

Have a nice day!

Michel
Quebec, Canada