More detailed mayfly photo's for indentification

[Bouncytigger]

I took these earlier today and this is about as best detail as i could get!

[Lance Morgan]

Pond Olive

[Bouncytigger]

Originally Posted by Lance Morgan

Pond Olive

Many Thanks Lance

I guessed it might be

They have larger eyes than most i was reading

[Dogghound]

As an example of what I meant in the previous thread, Lance said pond olive which I belive is a generic name for the Cloeon genus. Its a relatively easy genus to ID as they only have two wings (or 2 very reduced wings) appose to 4 which most mayflies have. Now the part where you need to see the wings becomes evident when you want to get the ID to a species. The two common ones in ponds which this is likely to be are Cloeon dipterum and Cloeon simile. The difference between the two is C.dipterum has 3-5 cross veins in the pterostigma (a small cell on the edge of the wing) and C.simile has 9-11 cross veins. So you can see you would probrably need a microscope to tell which it is.

Also of interest this one has recently emerged you can see the wings are a grey colour, it will moult again before it breeds when its wings will become clear this is when they are at their best to ID.

I hope this makes sense and im not sounding like a kill joy.

[Bouncytigger]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

As an example of what I meant in the previous thread, Lance said pond olive which I belive is a generic name for the Cloeon genus. Its a relatively easy genus to ID as they only have two wings (or 2 very reduced wings) appose to 4 which most mayflies have. Now the part where you need to see the wings becomes evident when you want to get the ID to a species. The two common ones in ponds which this is likely to be are Cloeon dipterum and Cloeon simile. The difference between the two is C.dipterum has 3-5 cross veins in the pterostigma (a small cell on the edge of the wing) and C.simile has 9-11 cross veins. So you can see you would probrably need a microscope to tell which it is.

Also of interest this one has recently emerged you can see the wings are a grey colour, it will moult again before it breeds when its wings will become clear this is when they are at their best to ID.

I hope this makes sense and im not sounding like a kill joy.

Many Thanks for your very informative reply Dogghound
The Latin names are useful as well.

I'll probably look them up online a little later and see what i can find

I guessed that one had just emerged as i saw the nymph surface and i went to get a cup of tea and when i came back that mayfly was sitting on the surface of the pond before making its may up some blades of grass.

I'm so glad now that i surrounded the pond area with rocks and meadow turf
as for such a small pond i've managed to attract a wealth of wildlife including dragonflies after just 18 months

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by Bouncytigger

I'm so glad now that i surrounded the pond area with rocks and meadow turf
as for such a small pond i've managed to attract a wealth of wildlife including dragonflies after just 18 months

Its good to hear, ponds are very important for wildlife, you will find as your pond matures you will get more and more interesting creatures visiting it.