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Mayfly
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{{Short description|Aquatic insects of the order Ephemeroptera}} {{Other uses}} {{Featured article}} {{Use British English|date=August 2015}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{Fossil range|Late Carboniferous|Present|Late Carboniferous–present<ref name=IIBD>{{cite book |last1=Hoell |first1=H. V. |last2=Doyen |first2=J. T. |last3=Purcell |first3=A. H. |year=1998 |title=Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=320, 345–348 |isbn=978-0-19-510033-4}}</ref>}} | image = Rhithrogena germanica subimago on Equisetum hyemale.jpg | image_caption = ''[[Rhithrogena germanica]]'', the [[fly fisherman]]'s "March brown mayfly" | display_parents = 3 | parent_authority = [[Rohdendorf]], 1968 | taxon = Ephemeroptera | authority = [[Alpheus Hyatt|Hyatt]] & [[Jennie Maria Arms Sheldon|Arms]], 1890 | subdivision_ranks = Suborders and families | subdivision = [[#Taxonomy and phylogeny|See text]] }} '''Mayflies''' (also known as '''shadflies''' or fishflies<!--boldface is only for things that redirect here--> in Canada and the upper [[Midwestern United States]], as Canadian soldiers in the American [[Great Lakes region]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Galbincea |first=Barb |title=Canadian soldiers invade Rocky River (photo gallery) |url=https://www.cleveland.com/rocky-river/2014/06/canadian_soldiers_invade_rocky.html |website=cleveland.com |date=18 June 2014 |access-date=11 October 2022}}</ref> and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are [[aquatic insect]]s belonging to the [[order (biology)|order]] '''Ephemeroptera'''. This order is part of an ancient group of insects termed the [[Palaeoptera]], which also contains [[dragonflies]] and [[damselflies]]. Over 3,000 [[species]] of mayfly are known worldwide, grouped into over 400 [[genera]] in 42 [[family (biology)|families]]. Mayflies have ancestral traits that were probably present in the first flying insects, such as long tails and [[Insect wing|wing]]s that do not fold flat over the [[insect morphology#Abdomen|abdomen]]. Their immature stages are aquatic [[fresh water]] forms (called "naiads" or "[[nymph (biology)|nymphs]]"), whose presence indicates a clean, unpolluted and highly oxygenated aquatic environment. They are unique among insect orders in having a fully winged terrestrial preadult stage, the subimago, which [[moulting|moults]] into a sexually mature adult, the [[imago]]. Mayflies "hatch" (emerge as adults) from spring to autumn, not necessarily in May, in enormous numbers. Some hatches attract tourists. [[Fly fishermen]] make use of mayfly hatches by choosing [[artificial fly|artificial fishing flies]] that resemble them. One of the most famous English mayflies is ''[[Rhithrogena germanica]]'', the fisherman's "March brown mayfly".<ref name=McCully/> The brief lives of mayfly adults have been noted by naturalists and encyclopaedists since [[Aristotle]] and [[Pliny the Elder]] in [[classical antiquity]]. The German engraver [[Albrecht Dürer]] included a mayfly in his 1495 engraving ''[[The Holy Family with the Mayfly]]'' to suggest a link between heaven and earth. The English poet [[George Crabbe]] compared the brief life of a daily newspaper with that of a mayfly in the satirical poem "The Newspaper" (1785), both being known as "ephemera".
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