Economic entomology for the farmer Economic entomology for the economicentomolo00smit_0 Year: 1896 THE INSECT WORLD. 59 Fig. 31. Order EPHEMEROPTERA. This order includes what are known as '' May-'' or ' * day- flies,' the names indicating either the time at which they first appear or the brief period of their adult life. 'May-flies' occur most abundantly during spring or early summer, in the vicinity of lakes, ponds, and rivers. They are readily recognized by their fragile body, terminated by two or three long, thread-like appendages, and by their large, frail wings, the posterior mu
Economic entomology for the farmer Economic entomology for the economicentomolo00smit_0 Year: 1896 THE INSECT WORLD. 59 Fig. 31. Order EPHEMEROPTERA. This order includes what are known as '' May-'' or ' * day- flies,' the names indicating either the time at which they first appear or the brief period of their adult life. 'May-flies' occur most abundantly during spring or early summer, in the vicinity of lakes, ponds, and rivers. They are readily recognized by their fragile body, terminated by two or three long, thread-like appendages, and by their large, frail wings, the posterior much smaller than the anterior. They fly at night, and are readily attracted to light, dozens being often seen hov- ering around a single street lamp. I have seen bushels of them at the base of electric lights on the banks of the Ohio, and the shores of the Great Lakes are sometimes covered with heaps six inches or more in depth, so that the stench from the decaying bodies becomes nearly insupportable. The head is large, the eyes are round and prominent, and the forelegs are conspicuously long and stout ; but the feelers are reduced to mere rudiments, and the mouth parts are atrophied and utterly useless for feeding purposes. In the May-flies we have the survival of an ancient type, their generalized structure indicating a low place in the scale of devel- opment. The eggs are laid on the surface of the water and sink gradually to the bottom. From them hatch narrow, elongate- oval, more or less flattened larvae, furnished laterally and some- times at the end of the body with gill-tufts, living in the mud ooze of river and lake bottoms, under stones, or among aquatic plants. They feed on all sorts of minute animal life, and prob- ably also upon the low forms of vegetation on submerged stones or sticks. They grow slowly, moult frequently, and live from May-fly and its larva.
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