tiny Mayfly - Plauditus

Moved

Moved from Small Minnow Mayflies.

… tom murray, 18 November, 2008 - 6:37pm

Moved

Moved from Caenis.

… tom murray, 21 August, 2008 - 4:38pm

Moved

Moved from Mayflies.

… tom murray, 16 August, 2008 - 3:12pm

Caenidae: Caenis sp.

I think. Nice photo of a small mayfly.

… Donald S. Chandler, 16 August, 2008 - 11:24am

A female baetid imago?

Don, I don't think this is Caenis for the following reasons:

Tails--Although it is always possible that a caudal filament is missing, Caenis typically has three filaments (body length or shorter in females, and much longer than body length in male imagines).

Wings--Caenis wings are very broad (they are sometimes called "broadwings" in Europe) and they often retain a whitish appearance, usually with a dark stripe along the SC and a conspicuous fringe of hairs along the trailing margin (especially in the anal portion).

Posture--Unlike most mayflies, Caenis frequently rests with the wings outspread laterally. Although they may hold the wings upright, the resting posture with the wings held laterally seems to be more typical. (This is mostly a personal observation, but Berner also describes this trait in the 1988 revised edition of The Mayflies of Florida.)

As a side note, I thought I'd also mention that the image on the Wikipedia Caenis page seems to be misidentified. The caption says Caenis horaria (a European species), but the image appears to be of a two-tailed baetid subimago. Compare the Wikipedia photo here to the (correctly identified, I believe) photo here.

… Lloyd Gonzales, 21 August, 2008 - 2:22pm

Lloyd

I think you are correct. I have been working through my accumulated reared baetids the past two weeks, and I would go with Plaudit*us now. BUT, without the specimen, best to say no more.

… Donald S. Chandler, 18 November, 2008 - 6:16pm

Hi Tom, Your picture is v

Hi Tom,

Your picture is very interesting. A couple of days ago, while examining some detritus taken from the edge of a pond where I live in eastern Delaware, I came across what I thought might be a segment of some larval abdominal effluvia. The segment was quite small, perhaps 1 mm or a little more. In appearance, it very much resembled the last 4 or 5 abdominal segments of your mayfly. Your picture makes me wonder whether the remains I found wasn't a segment of exoskeleton of a mayfly. Now I'm sorry I discarded the segment. I think I'll start keeping a photographic record of the tiny bits of effluvia and exoskeletal remains and what have you that turn up in detritus. Such remains are kind of interesting in their own right (kind of like entomologic forensics [like, "CSI: Miami," only, "CSI: Pond Scum"]).

Best wishes,

Catfish

… Catfish, 15 August, 2008 - 11:16pm