Palaeos Palaeos Ephemeroptera
Arthropoda Overview

Ephemeroptera

Abbreviated Dendrogram
PTERYGOTA
|--Palaeodictyopteroida  
|--Odonatoptera
|--NEOPTERA
|  
`--EPHEMEROPTERA
   `--+--Triplosobidae
      `--+--Permoplectoptera
         `--Euplectoptera
Contents

Overview
Ephemeroptera
Dendrogram
References

Ephemeroptera: the not so ephemeral Mayfies

Rhithrogena germanica on Equisetum hyemale - photo by Richard Bartz

One of the most ancient of insects, on one of the most ancient of plants. A female subimago of Rhithrogena germanica . Ephemeroptera: Euplectoptera: Schistonota: Heptagenioidea: Heptageniidae, resting on Equisetum hyemale. Despite this being a modern photo, this exact same image could belong with barely any change to any time over the last quarter of a billion years
Photo by Richard Bartz,Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike

There is something ironic about creatures that live barely a few days as adults existing with very little change over several hundred million years. the Mayflies, whose scientific name Ephemeroptera is derived from the Greek ephemeros, short-lived, hence ephemeral are one of the four most ancient clades of winged insects. Like their relatives the dragonflies and damselflies, they have a long aquatic immature stage (called a naiad or nymph), a heritage, no doubt, of their ancestral home in the mighty Carboniferous wetlands. Experts disagree on which of the three "ancient wing" (paleopteran) groups stand at the base of the insectan evolutionary tree. MAK120521






images not loading? | error messages? | broken links? | suggestions? | criticism?

contact us

pageMAK120521; Creative Commons Attribution;