rik-rat corn pile

Thursday, July 28, 2011

muscatine mayfly.

Well, isn't this disgusting? Hoards of winged insects plastered against tavern glass. Kyle, George and I recently visited Muscatine, Iowa and this is what I remember...mayflies.
Because these bugs so thoroughly grossed me out I had to do a little research bout' em'...what did I learn?

1. Male and female mayflies have two sets of genitalia.
2. The larval stage lasts for over a year.
3. The adults live anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. They are a short lived creature and their primary function is procreation (which happens mid-air with double genitalia, interesting).
4. The insects have mouths but they are vestigial...their mouth serves absolutely no function. Why does it even exist?
5. They are related to dragonflies and damselflies.

Overall, I'd say that the mayfly is a silly creature. I don't understand why they exist, they kind of scare me, and they come out like a plague. I hope I don't run into them again.

2 comments:

  1. remember when we dissected cicadas? and then ryder ate one.

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  2. HA! he crunched that bug so hard. Awww, memories. I have a photo shoot from that day,I should send you some pics...you've got a baggie full of cicadas and you look so proud.

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