Stroud Water Research Center

Mayflies

Scientists at Stroud Water Research Center have been studying mayflies for decades because they are a hallmark of healthy streams and rivers. When mayfly populations decline, it’s a warning that something has gone wrong. Click on some of the items below to learn more about our mayfly work.

A small brook trout swims in a shallow stream.

Too Hot to Handle: How Rising Temperature Impacts Streams

A female mayfly with a ball of eggs attached to the underside of her abdomen.

The Magic of Mayflies

The Bug Whisperer: Dave Funk Decodes Mysteries of Mayflies and Other Clean-Water Lovers

The Bug Whisperer: Dave Funk Decodes Mysteries of Mayflies and Other Clean-Water Lovers

Cloeon dipterum, female imago (adult).

Oxygen Not Behind Threat To Mayflies When Temps Rise

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Oxygen limitation fails to explain upper chronic thermal limits and the temperature size rule in mayflies

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Transcriptomic and life history responses of the mayfly Neocloeon triangulifer to chronic diel thermal challenge

Photo of the mayfly, Neocloeon triangulifer, by DH Funk

Modeling Mayflies to Understand the Challenges of a Warming Planet

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Space colonization by branching trachea explains the morphospace of a simple respiratory organ

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Phenological modeling of the parthenogenetic mayfly Neocloeon triangulifer (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) in White Clay Creek

Video still from Episode 5 of the WHYY "Stories From the Streams" video series

Stories From the Streams: Salty Streams

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Why some mayfly adults are older and larger: photoperiodic induction of larval quiescence

Publication title with image of a mayfly

The good, the bad and the lethal: gene expression and metabolomics reveal physiological mechanisms underlying chronic thermal effects in mayfly larvae (Neocloeon triangulifer)

Stroud Science on NPR: Road Salt Boosts Safety But Threatens Fresh Water

Stroud Science on NPR: Road Salt Boosts Safety But Threatens Fresh Water

Still from mayfly egg hatching video.

Mayfly Eggs Hatching a Minute After Being Laid

Mayfly rearing syste.

Could Rising Temps Be Killing Mayflies, Threatening Streams? Scientists Investigate.

Ecotoxicity Study for Mayflies Exposed to Ambient Stream Water From the Upper Delaware Basin and to Produced Water From Natural Gas Drilling

Ecotoxicity Study for Mayflies Exposed to Ambient Stream Water From the Upper Delaware Basin and to Produced Water From Natural Gas Drilling

Comparative Lifecycle and Toxicity Testing of Multiple Mayfly Species Across a Gradient of Total Dissolved Solids, With Methods Development for Native Species in the Central Appalachian Coal Fields

Comparative Lifecycle and Toxicity Testing of Multiple Mayfly Species Across a Gradient of Total Dissolved Solids, With Methods Development for Native Species in the Central Appalachian Coal Fields

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Cryptic biodiversity in streams: a comparison of macroinvertebrate communities based on morphological and DNA barcode identifications

Fracking truck

UpStream Newsletter, December 2013

A stream cascade in Lofty Creek, Pennsylvania.

A DNA barcode library for North American Ephemeroptera: Progress and prospects

A stream cascade in Lofty Creek, Pennsylvania.

Mitochondrial lineages and DNA barcoding of closely related species in the mayfly genus Ephemerella (Ephemeroptera:Ephemerellidae)

UpStream Newsletter, Summer 2009

UpStream Newsletter, Summer 2009

Director Sweeney to Lead Freshwater Surveillance Group

Director Sweeney to Lead Freshwater Surveillance Group

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Maternal transfer of chlordane and its metabolites to the eggs of a stream mayfly Centroptilum triangulifer

Publication title with image of a mayfly

A model for seasonal synchrony in stream mayflies

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Electrophoretic study of Eastern North American Eurylophella (Ephemeroptera: Ephemerellidae) with the discovery of morphologically cryptic species

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Genetic variation in stream mayfly (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) populations in eastern North America

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Geographic parthenogenesis in the stream mayfly Eurylophella funeralis in eastern North America

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Population genetic structure of two mayflies (Ephemerella subvaria, Eurylophella verisimilis) in the Delaware River drainage basin

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Effects of temperature and food quality on growth and development of a mayfly, Leptophlebia intermedia

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Influence of food quality and temperature on life history characteristics of the parthenogenetic mayfly Cloeon triangulifer

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Population synchrony in mayflies: a predator satiation hypothesis

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Ephemerella mayflies of White Clay Creek: bioenergetic and ecological relationships among six coexisting species

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Life history, developmental processes, and energetics of the burrowing mayfly Dolania americana

Publication title with image of a mayfly

Bioenergetic and developmental response of a mayfly to thermal variation