Editing Mayfly (section)

===Subimago===
{{Anchor|Subimago}}<!-- [[Subimago]] redirects here -->

The final moult of the nymph is not to the full adult form, but to a winged stage called a subimago that physically resembles the adult, but which is usually sexually immature and duller in colour. The subimago, or dun,<ref>{{cite news|title=Subimago | work=Britannica.com}}</ref> often has partially cloudy wings fringed with minute hairs known as microtrichia; its eyes, legs and [[Insect reproductive system|genitalia]] are not fully developed. Females of some mayflies (subfamily Palingeniinae) do not moult from a subimago state into an adult stage and are sexually mature while appearing like a subimago with microtrichia on the wing membrane. Oligoneuriine mayflies form another exception in retaining microtrichia on their wings but not on their bodies. Subimagos are generally poor fliers, have shorter appendages, and typically lack the colour patterns used to attract mates. In males of ''[[Ephoron leukon]]'', the subimagos have forelegs that are short and compressed, with accordion like folds, and expands to more than double its length after moulting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Edmunds |first1=George F. |author1-link=George F. Edmunds (entomologist) |last2=McCafferty |first2=W. P. |date=1988 |title=The Mayfly Subimago |journal=Annual Review of Entomology |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=509–527 |doi=10.1146/annurev.en.33.010188.002453 |issn=0066-4170}}</ref> After a period, usually lasting one or two days but in some species only a few minutes, the subimago moults to the full adult form, making mayflies the only insects where a winged form undergoes a further moult.<ref name=McCafferty1983>{{cite book |last=McCafferty |first=W. Patrick |title=Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermen's and Ecologists' Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wiTq7x-fI_0C&pg=PA94 |year=1983 |publisher=[[Jones & Bartlett Learning|Jones & Bartlett]] |isbn=978-0-86720-017-1 |pages=91–123 |chapter=Mayflies}}</ref>