154 Ephemera, the May -Fly. 



fat delicacies for the hungry fish which feed on them. The 

 eggs are deposited, it is probable, in small clusters ; certainly 

 not all at once, as some writers have asserted. 



Mr. Griffiths (Anim. King., Insects h. 321) tells us that 

 "each Ephemera has seven or eight hundred eggs to lay, which 

 is an affair of a moment, for she puts forth the two clusters 

 at once" (!). 



Swammerdam supposed that the eggs of the female were 

 fertilized by the male at the moment of expulsion in the water, 

 after the manner of fish ; but there is doubt that the Ephe- 

 mera does not differ from what obtains amongst other insects 

 in this particular point. 



The Ephemeridce have all very short awl-shaped antennas, 

 hence the term Subulicornes proposed by Latreille, and very 

 small hinder wings. In the genus Coenis and in Gloe diptera 

 the hind wings are entirely absent. The eyes are large ; those 

 of the male of Ephem. vulgata are much more prominent than 

 the eyes of the female ; the ocelli are three in number. 



The term May-fly is very indefinite, standing for all sorts 

 of different insects in different counties ; here, in Shropshire, 

 we generally restrict the word to the Ephemera vulgata. 

 Anglers are often very positive that the green and grey 

 drake are produced from the caddis worms, so abundant in 

 every stream and pond, which are the larvae of various kinds 

 of Phryganidai. 



As the term Oadow is used to denote the May-fly (Ephe- 

 mera), it is probable that the name was given to it under 

 the mistaken notion that it was produced from a case larva. 



That the grey-drake is only the female green-drake metamor- 

 phosed, or rather after the last pellicle is cast, may be some- 

 times readily proved by dissection. The marble and white 

 skin of the female grey-drake may be seen by carefully 

 slitting open or peeling off the first integument of the green- 

 drake. 



The expressions green and grey drakes, as applied to the 

 May-flies by anglers, owe their origin to the fact that the 

 wings of the artificial fly are made from a mallard's feather, 

 dyed olive for tbe green-drake, or immature condition of- the 

 insect ; and from the same feather slightly stained with purple 

 for the grey-drake, or perfect form of the female. 



The figure on the left-hand blade of grass in Plate I. 

 represents the female green-drake, which changes into the 

 grey-drake, seen resting on the right-hand blade, leaving her 

 cast-off pellicle upon the grass stem, as seen in the engraving. 

 The flying insect is the perfect male. 



