Shaky for two hundred million years,
Mayfly
Since this name was born
In the human cognitive field
It has become a synonym for microscopic life.
Poems related to mayflies
Are also full of pathos.
Such as:
Life is one day, mayfly is one life.
Born in the morning, dying in the evening, living with mayflies.
Why mayflies are so closely related to humanity
What humans have gained from mayflies
About the cognition of life
The curtain slowly opened
Shaky for two hundred million years
Mayflies, is the general term for mayflies, with an ancient and special shape, also a highly primitive insect, it can be traced back to the Carboniferous period, calculated to be at least 200 million years old.
Evidence shows that mayflies are the oldest flying insects still existing, together with dragonflies, they are the earliest animals to fly. So far, there are 2250 known species of mayflies in the world, only 250 species have been clearly recorded in China.
Mayfly wings cannot be folded, the body is slender and soft, but usually no more than 3-27mm. On this slender but extremely small body, there are complete organs.
Mayfly antennae are short, compound eyes are well developed, the mid-chest is large, the forewings are developed, but the hindwings are severely degenerated, the immature larvae are aquatic.
Growing into adult mayflies do not feed, their digestive tract is full of air: before the final molt, the mid-intestine is sealed, forming a closed sausage-shaped bubble, full of air, allowing the larvae to easily float to the surface of the water.
'Adults' only last for two days
Mayflies have four stages – egg, immature larvae, semi-adult and adult, these four periods spend 1-3 years in the water.
Mayfly larvae live in water, they choose to live in warm, shallow, quiet lake shores, and maintain a large number because fish prey on mayfly larvae.
Mayfly larvae's main focus is to feed, their main food is algae and leaf debris. They spend several weeks to 1 year, conducting 10 to 50 molts, then can enter the unique terrestrial, winged, semi-adult stage of mayflies.
When mayfly larvae grow to half maturity, wings buds appear on the back of the chest, at this time, their feet, whiskers and so on have not fully developed, so they are called semi-adults. Semi-adults can molt into adults in a few hours to two days.
After the mayflies have gone through the first three stages, finally grown into adult mayflies, is that with big wings, can fly freely, at this time we really call 'born in the morning, dying in the evening' – adult mayflies do not feed, short lifespan, usually only live for a few hours to several days, so there is 'born in the morning, dying in the evening'.
Adults usually spend time flying, their lifespan is very short, almost using all their time for mating. This is why adult mayflies have evolved to have a large bubble in their digestive system, which does not feed.
Small body, big use
Live only for a few hours... After the adult mayfly's brief journey was discovered by ancient people, it has become a synonym for microscopic life.
It opened the curtain to human relations. Life, because of the bitter pain and unpredictable tribulations, also often became 'may' life.
Mayflies not only give 'human cherish the present and all things', but also as a measure of the environmental field.
Because many mayflies are very sensitive to hypoxia and acidic environments, so the number of mayflies in a region can be used to measure the level of environmental pollution. Many locations in North America and Europe's acidic rain killed mayfly habitats of the immature larvae, leading to the decline of fish populations - because mayfly larvae are the main food of fish.
In 1675, Dutch biologist Jan Wammer described a mayfly in detail, at that time this mayfly was abundant in the Netherlands, but now, all over Western Europe can not find this mayfly, the reason is that the immature larvae are extremely sensitive to environmental pollution. Therefore, the existence of mayflies can be used as a standard for identifying water quality.
'To be a mayfly and one in a hundred thousand in the sky and the sea', ancient people long for the short lifespan of mayflies, to express the hope that they can live forever, in order to achieve more ambitions, but also know that life is like a white jade rolling away, gone in a flash.
Sources: Baidu, Zhihu
Written by: Xiao Ran
Planned by: Shen Ziming
Produced by: Rong Ai Media Network Natural Protection
