148 Ephemera, the May-Fly. 



flies. See how fast the green-drake is appearing. Notice how 

 it flies, with head erect for a second or two, and then falls 

 almost helplessly on the surface of the water. There ! a fish 

 rose at him, did yon see? But Ephemera has escaped the 

 cavernous jaws of a trout, and now has succeeded in reaching 

 a blade of grass, where he will probably rest for some hours. 

 It is mid-day now, and still the green-drake comes out. Let 

 us lie flat down on the bank, where the water is smooth and 

 free from rapids, and I dare say we shall discover Ephemera in 

 the very act of emerging from his nympha state. Here comes 

 something floating down. It is within reach of my hand, so I 

 will secure it. What is it ? It is as I thought. Ephemera is 

 throwing off his swaddling-clothes. See how he twirls and 

 twists the last portion of his body about, already free. There 

 is a split in his back ; through it he will presently draw out 

 his head.* Sometimes, instead of leaving his swaddling- 

 clothes in the water, he deposits them on a blade of grass, or 

 some water- weed. 



Let us capture a number of these green-drakes, and take 

 them home for dissection. Now, observe that these green- 

 drakes are not all of the same size, some being larger and 

 fatter than others. The small ones are the males, and the large 

 ones the females ; but we must remember that both large and 

 small specimens have not yet arrived at maturity. They have 

 cast off their upper clothes, it is true, but there is still an under 

 suit which they will get rid of. But they are only children at 

 present. I must here express my surprise at assertions not 

 unfrequently made in some natural history books, that the 

 Ephemera, in its green-drake stage, deposits eggs. The 

 latest repetition of this error which I have seen is in Mr. 

 Cholmondeley PennelFs book, The Angler Naturalist, in which he 

 says, at p. 831 : " When the time arrives for the transformation 

 of the loathsome grub into the brilliant and delicate May-fly, 

 the insect crawls up from the mud in which its hole is bored, 

 by the stem of the nearest rush or water weed, on which it 

 rapidly casts the disfiguring slough, dropping its eggs into the 

 water as it rises from the surface for its first flight." When we 

 consider how many anomalous circumstances do occur in the 

 animal world, such, for instance, as Parthenogenesis, and re- 

 productive larva;, it would, perhaps, be speaking too confidently 

 to affirm that something analogous to this never occurs in the 

 case Of Ephemera vulgata ; but until such a thing is substan- 

 tiated by positive proof, we must consider the immature sub- 

 imago of the May-fly to be no exception to the general rule. 



* These insects often draw out the anterior part of the body first, and some- 

 times the tail part, or abdomen, appears first. 



