Facts about Mayflies

Both immature and adult mayflies are an important part of the food web, particularly for carnivorous fish such as trout in cold water streams or bass and catfish in warm water streams.

Mayflies undergo incomplete metamorphosis, also known as hemimetabolism and gradual metamorphosis.

In certain regions of New Guinea and Africa, mayflies are eaten when they emerge en mass on a certain day.

What mayflies do share with dragonflies and damselflies is the nature of how the wings are articulated and controlled.

Mayflies molt one more time after acquiring functional wings (this is also known as the alate stage).

Other common names for mayflies include "dayfly," "June bug," "shadfly," "Canadian soldier," and "fishfly" (Staneff-Cline and Neff 2007).

Mayflies have four wings, which are held vertically at rest.

The status of most species of mayflies is unknown because many species are only known from the original collection data.

Mayflies are mostly slender insects, with two pairs of fragile and transparent wings, and typically with two or three long, thread-like tails.