Dear all,
inspite I have been asking many sources already I have not yet been able to indentify this mayfly. Last day a friend sent me a pitcure of a mayfly he came across in the Yellowstone at Mammut hot spring last July. Well it looked just the same, even though I pictured mine in central Germany. Confiding in your competence I try to the gather your input too.
Hope is ok if instead of posting the pics I put a link to them becasue they 9 pics
whew! you've got some competition, Jason! well worth the small trouble to copy and paste the link. when do we get this gorgeous specimen on a calendar?
I'd exclude H.sulphurea for according to my sources it is small (10 to 14mm)and have no brown longitudinal stripe on the back
any other guess ?
thanks a lot
That's my only guess. So, how long are they, anyway? Perhaps I missed it, but I didn't think you mentioned any length. That information would likely be useful to others.
I am now in front some literature (mayflies of central Europe - Bauernfeind & Humpesch). In fact I wrongly reported earlier on today about the lenght of E.sulphurea, it is given bewtween 9-12 mm. Sorry, I had it wrong on top of my head.
The one in the picture is at least 15 mm (as visible in the picture number 2). The book reports also that in E.sulphurea all the femora are uniformly gray-yellow colored, without bandage or spots (which are instead visible in picuture 9). As well, according to other sources the abdomen (sternite)of E.sulphurea shows no signs or dots (visible on picture 6).
One thing in favour of E.sulphurea and that match with the schema shown on Mayflies of central europa are the genitalia though. If this is enough to categorize I do not know. Looking forward to further opinions
thanks so far
Also the hatching period matches, I took in this pics in May.
The dark stripe on the back is typical on the H.longicauda too but this latter shows up later in the year (July).
Andrea
PS Jason your pictures of the Hexagenia limbata have something that recalls a lot to the pattern of H.flava, the strip on the back and yellow edge on the front wing and the darker margin on the back of the rear wing.. I wonder if they had some common evolution lines :) after all 250 milion year ago there was still Pangea