Mayfly
Male, Thorax, dorsal
Adelaide Hills
Mayfly
Male, Anal Pincers
 
                      
Mayfly (Centroptilum elongatum)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Mayflies (Ephemeroptera)
Family: Mayfly (Baetidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Mayfly (Centroptilum elongatum)
This Photo:     Male, Thorax, ventral

Thank you Asaph (Asaph01) for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere
1st Live Photo on-line:
This male was ~5mm long (head & body). The tail cerci are just under 9mm. The specimen we found keyed out to Centroptilum, and C. elongatum is the only one in this genus found in SA.
Notice the weird overhead eyes of the male; used for searching for a female (thank you to Ian Gibbins for confirming this assumption
When we mentioned we couldn't think of another invert' with a 2nd pair of compound eyes, Ian also told us that they are not strictly a 2nd pair of eyes; but a genetic situation where the normal eyes split during development. This is a similar trick to the way mantids, eg, have striped eyes; and other insects have different zones in their eyes for varying purposes. Pretty fascinating stuff

Copyright © 2018-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 27-Mar-2018
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.