Thats what I meant in my previous post. The name 'Mayfly' in britain is generally taken to mean the large species of Ephemera - danica, etc.. Dayflies are the various ephemeroptera. In the States 'Mayfly' has the same meaning as 'Dayflies'
Mayflies - EphemeropteraMayflies are insects which belong in Order Ephemeroptera (from the Greek ephemeros = "short-lived", pteron = "wing", referring to the short life span of adults). The life cycle for the mayfly begins when after a small number of weeks, the egg changes into a nymph. It in point of fact requires an added year before they mature.
Mayflies Family of flies also known as March Brown, Blue winged olive,
Epherma danica, Blue winged olive imago, Blue winged olve dun and Baetis spinner
As you may be aware, there are various names to the different
types of mayflies & different names including their emergence stage according to species: - Stone Clinger, Hexagenia, Slit Burrower, March Brown, Blue winged olive,
Epherma danica, Blue winged olive imago, Blue winged olve dun and Baetis spinner to name just a few. All these has a unique way of life with the intention of matching its environments as you would expect. But it really it is as a young nymph that every one of those species adapts and creates lifestyles to suit their very own environments. When it turns into an adult, its single aim in life is always to reproduce. This good-looking living thing may well be in this world just for a few hours, certainly not more than 24 hours. Therefore after they've mated, the female lays her eggs and dies becoming what is named spent. The entire sequence then begins another time.
Mayfly Short Life-time It is very fascinating to note of the fact that short life span of the mayfly is represented in it's name in a mixture of languages all over the world and interprets literally as one-day-fly! A few examples of this are - German Eintagsfliege, Dutch eendagsvlieg, Slovenian enodnevnica, Swedish dagslända, Danish and Norwegian døgnflue, Polish jętka jednodniówka, Finnish päivänkorento, Bulgarian еднодневка, and Greek εφήμερος.
This is according to a British entomologist. Not American.
Alex