TINY MAYFLY

The beauty of this tiny mayfly was in the iridescent wings. I’m so glad the light was right to show how colorful they were. I say ‘tiny’ because it was less than an inch in length (approx. 2 cm) – including the wings, but it’s a real eye catcher. It is in the same insect group as dragonflies and damselflies, but the adult lifespan of a mayfly is anywhere from a few hours to two days at most. In the immature stage they have functioning mouthparts; however, the adult (with wings) doesn’t feed so has non-functioning mouthparts. (Guess that’s one reason they don’t live very long!) Mayflies are the only group of insects that molt after they have wings. I learned all this today – another Blip benefit.

The picture makes more sense right-side up, but the mayfly was hanging from a forsythia leaf when I spotted it this morning – and landed that way every time it moved - so upside down is its natural position. I’ll eventually learn how to correct the gIare on the body & leaf - lots yet to learn about Lightroom!

Wouldn’t you know, I had this blip ready to post when the cardinal couple decided to come to the feeder. (See them on Flickr.) There haven’t been any birds there today, until now. It’s a difficult choice since the bird picture is better, but I’m sure to have many bird blips coming up, so I’ll go with the mayfly today.