| Ephemera glaucops (Pictet, 1843) |
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Scientific name: Ephemera glaucops (Pictet, 1843) Common name: French name: Order: Ephemeroptera Family: Ephemeridae Wingspan : Males: 14 to 17 mm for the body, 18 to 24 mm for the cerci, 12 to 15 mm for the wings; Females: 15 to 22 mm for the body, 12 to 15 mm for the cerci and 14 to 17 mm for the wings. Biotope: Non eutrophic stagnant water, gravel pits, lakes, ponds. Geographic area: Europe. Observation period : May to October with a peak in July. |
The life cycle of May Flies lasts from one to three years, generally two. Adults as subimagos and then imagos, which are unable to feed, only live a few days. Males die just after mating and females die just after laying the eggs. The larvae moult about twenty times. After emerging adults only moult once to change from the subimago stage to the imago stage which is sexually mature for reproduction. Yu can tell males part with their very long fore legs held up and pointing forwards. You can tell apart imagos of the Ephemeridae family with their large size, at least 14 mm for the body. They show three long cerci and four wings. Ephemeridae larvae are burrowers. Ephemera glaucops is a yellowish colour and only shows four thin lines on the abdomen. The hind wing has dark border. Ephemera danica shows a uniform white ivory colour on the 5 first abdominal segments. They are sometimes weakly marked with double-comma shapes on each side. The following segments show well marked long brown patches. Ephemera vulgata shows dark brown triangular marks on each side of the abdomen. These marks are elongated on the last segments. Ephemera lineata is very similar to Ephemera glaucops but is shows six close parallel lines on the last segments. Subimagos are similar to imagos but with less bright and more milky colours. |
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I have observed this May Fly next to stagnant water, that's to say on the bank of a gravel pit in the Basse Vallée du Doubs. The milky colour indicates one subimago. The four thin lines on the abdomen and the dark border on the hind wings seem to indicate Ephemera glaucops. The habitat seems to perfectly match too. The moderately elongated fore legs indicate one female. Having not seen this species listed in Saône-et-Loire, I have asked a friend of mine who is an expert on these insect families. Looking at the pictures he told me Ephemera glaucops female probable but would have wanted to observe one male to confirm. So he has recommended to me to label Ephemera cf. glaucops. |
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I have observed a few subimagos among high grasses bordering water but just a very limited number of them. |
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Unfortunately I am not in this region, which is my native region, very often. However I will try to do new observations in the coming years and in particular I will try to see males. |
André Bon February 2013