Mayflies

All 2 species of mayflies on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 46 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• It belongs to the only insect order that passes through an intermediate winged stage, the subimago: it emerges from the water with wings and able to fly, but is not yet sexually mature and must moult once more.

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• Together with stoneflies and caddisflies it forms the so-called "big three" of water-quality assessment: its presence indicates clean water and its disappearance, pollution.

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• Mayflies, dragonflies and damselflies are the most primitive winged insects alive: they cannot fold their wings over the abdomen, a trait inherited from the Carboniferous.

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• Mayflies are the only group of insects that moult after having wings: they emerge from the water as a subimago, a dull, matt winged stage, and a few hours later moult again to become the definitive adult.

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• The adult has no functional mouthparts and no working gut: it lives only to breed and dies the same day.

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• Its abundance is a classic indicator of water quality, and the biotic indices used to assess European rivers rest in good part on mayflies like this one.

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Ecosystems