Ephmera, or Day Flies.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1824, 15 March 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Ephmera, or Day Flies.

These iuaects belong to the family which is scientifically called Ephemeridie. They are called day flies on occount of their short life, a Bingle day sometimes witnessing their entrance into a perfect state of development and their death. They pass about two years in their laval and pupal state. These insects are interesting and remarkable for a stage of development which is very unoommon. When they forsake the water where their laval and pupal state i 3 passed they creep out of the pupa case, and after resting for a short period — from one to twenty hours — begin a tremulous motion of their wings. Then they fly to the trunk of a tree or to the stem of some water plant, and cast off a thin membraneous skin which has enveloped the body and wings, and fly quickly away before the eyes of the observer, leaving this skin resting upon the stem, looking at first like a dead insect. After this operation the wings are much brighter. The state between leaving the water and casting off the skin is called "pseudimago." These day flies were known to the ancients. Aristotle says " that about the time of the summer equinox he observed on the shore of one of the rivers which empties into the 803phorous little sacs, from which insects would creep out and fly about until evening, then grow weary, and die at the setting of the sun. They were called on this account day flies." On a quiet May or June evening these insects may be seen flying about, sometimes in great numbers, their gauze-like wings irradiated by the rays of the setting sun. They fly without any visible motion of their wings, and seem to drink in joy and pleasure in the few hours which lie between their appearance and disappearance — their life and death. They measure from 17 to 19 millimeters without the tale filaments, which in the female are of the same length of the body, but in the male double the length. The larvre inhabit the water, and have upon Bach side of the back«part of the body six tufts or tassels ; the head runs forward into two points, and has fine, hairy feelers; the legs are smooth, the front ones the strongest and adapted for digging. They are fond of hiding under stones or burrowing into the sandy shores, and make a very curious tunnel, something like a double-barrelled gun, which is often fifty-two millimeters deep. — Frovi Brchm's Animal Life.