MAYFLIES, DUNS AND SPINNERS 237 



emerges, and the life history goes on as before. 

 Some years since I counted under the microscope 

 the number of eggs in six specimens of the mayfly, 

 added these numbers together and dividing by six 

 found that the average number laid by each female 

 is approximately 6500. 



After oviposition the female falls on the water with 

 her wings flat and outstretched at right angles to the 

 line of her abdomen. At this stage she is almost life- 

 less, floats down without a struggle, and falls an 

 easy prey to the hungry trout. Anglers generally call 

 the imago of the smaller Ephemeridae — whether male 

 or female — a spinner, and in the case of the mayfly 

 the name applied by many anglers is spent ^nat. 

 The modern dry-fly man is, however, inclined to 

 abandon this singularly inappropriate name and apply 

 to the perfect mayfly its more correct appellation of 

 imago. 



The male imagines continue their dance long after 

 their consorts have oviposited, and do not fall until 

 probably the last brood of females of their own species 

 during the season has also completed its share in the 

 work of procreation. Some fall on the water, but 

 many, and it is believed the vast majority, of the 

 male imagines fall on the land wherever they may 

 happen to be, or at the part to which they have 

 been carried by the force of the wind. In all the 

 Ephemeridae the males are considerably smaller than 

 the females, whether in the nymph, subimago, or 

 imago stages. 



