Dance of the Mayflies

[Danaus29]

Rebekah called me out to the road a little while ago. There were a bunch of flies bouncing up and down and travelling up and down the road. Our neighbor caught one for her:



It was a swarm of Mayflies! So cool! The males swarm and do this up and down dance as part of the mating ritual. They don't have long to date, they usually die within 24 hours of becoming adults. This was a rare sight indeed!

[matkin]

The Mississippi River is about 40 miles from us. You DO NOT want to be along the river when the Mayflies come out. There are billions swarming. They get in your eyes, ears and mouth. They actually cause traffic accidents. One motorcycle hit a patch of them and slid into the rail of the old Burlington bridge, and the driver went into the river. In the quad cities they actually have to send the street sweepers out onto the bridges to try to keep the flies cleaned up. They only live 24 hours, but they hatch out over several days and the air is filled with them for a week. At night it looks like a fog in the parking lots from the flies swarming around the lights. The only ones that like the mayflies are the fish.

[Bird Lover]

Leave it to Rhonda....to find a swarm of them a fantastic sight, lol.
Matkin's description is enough to make me run the other way.

[Danaus29]

If they were that thick here the ducks would be having a feast! My swarm was nowhere near that big (maybe 30 or so), but I sure would like to see a big swarm, just not when driving!

[Pburgh]

What I want to know is how you got that little fella to sit still long enough to take a picture if he only has 24 hours to live and is trying to mate????

[Danaus29]

I don't know why he/she sat still for so long. It was a good 3 or so minutes before it took off again. But then it was off, dancing and bouncing up and down, up and down the road again.