On the River Tees is held annually amazing natural "show" in the mating season mayflies

These photos - a lot of long-tailed mayflies length of almost 13 cm, gathering in a swarm for procreation.





The peculiar natural "show" can be seen in the Tisza River Basin: it lasts only a few hours, because the life expectancy of mayflies, also called "flies Tisa" (because of the habitat of a million of the population in the basin of the river), is one day.





The breeding season "flies Tisa" lasts from late spring to early summer, these days the river is teeming with myriads of insects, takes to the air to gain before death "soul mate" - a colorful natural phenomenon was the attraction of these places that many people come specifically to watch for bright marital games insects.





Long-tailed mayfly larvae (lat. Palingenia longicauda) spend three years in the tunnels dug in the silt and going deep into the river bed, and only then hatch. The density of such "holes" up to 400 larvae per m2.





In adults, mayflies have about three hours to lay the foundation for future offspring, which they will never see - this time males spend in a frenetic search for Lady, finding that converted 135-kilometer section of the river south-east of Budapest, in one big bed of love, female same times We have to consistently deal with 20 partners. After fertilization, the female fly from one to three km, laying eggs, which sink to the bottom, and after about 45 days the larvae hatch from them.





For more mayflies observed Aristotle, stricken by the brevity of their active life, so that he called them ephemeron - «fleeting».





Have Palingenia longicauda - an important indicator of the purity of the reservoir, so in Europe, they have rarely come across: in addition to Serbia, where he also runs Tisza mayflies observed in Romania on the Prut and lower Danube basin.





via factroom.ru