Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) and Their Contributions to Ecosystem Services

Abstract

This work is intended as a general and concise overview of Ephemeroptera biology, diversity, and services provided to humans and other parts of our global array of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The Ephemeroptera, or mayflies, are a small but diverse order of amphinotic insects associated with liquid freshwater worldwide. They are nearly cosmopolitan, except for Antarctica and some very remote islands. The existence of the subimago stage is unique among extant insects. Though the winged stages do not have functional mouthparts or digestive systems, the larval, or nymphal, stages have a variety of feeding approaches—including, but not limited to, collector-gatherers, filterers, scrapers, and active predators—with each supported by a diversity of morphological and behavioral adaptations. Mayflies provide direct and indirect services to humans and other parts of both freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. In terms of cultural services, they have provided inspiration to musicians, poets, and other writers, as well as being the namesakes of various water- and aircraft. They are commemorated by festivals worldwide. Mayflies are especially important to fishing. Mayflies contribute to the provisioning services of ecosystems in that they are utilized as food by human cultures worldwide (having one of the highest protein contents of any edible insect), as laboratory organisms, and as a potential source of antitumor molecules. They provide regulatory services through their cleaning of freshwater. They provide many essential supporting services for ecosystems such as bioturbation, bioirrigation, decomposition, nutrition for many kinds of non-human animals, nutrient cycling and spiraling in freshwaters, nutrient cycling between aquatic and terrestrial systems, habitat for other organisms, and serving as indicators of ecosystem health. About 20% of mayfly species worldwide might have a threatened conservation status due to influences from pollution, invasive alien species, habitat loss and degradation, and climate change. Even mitigation of negative influences has benefits and tradeoffs, as, in several cases, sustainable energy production negatively impacts mayflies.

Six complete mitochondrial genomes of mayflies from three genera of Ephemerellidae (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) with inversion and translocation oftrnIrearrangement and their phylogenetic relationships

“…Ephemeroptera has about 3,500 species around the world, which is a small order of Pterygota ( Salles et al, 2018 ). Having significant roles among freshwater fauna, they are found in many kinds of microhabitats and function in various trophic roles ( Salles et al, 2018 ; Jacobus, Macadam & Sartori, 2019 ). Considerable effort has been devoted to discovering the phylogenetic relationships among the Ephemeroptera families based on morphology ( McCafferty & Edmunds, 1979 ; McCafferty, 1991 ; Kluge, 2004 ), molecular evidence ( Ogden & Whiting, 2005 ), and combined data ( Ogden et al, 2009 ).…”

Reports of Baetidae (Ephemeroptera) species from Tafna Basin, Algeria and biogeographic affinities revealed by DNA barcoding

“…The family Baetidae has a cosmopolitan distribution and represents a quarter of the Ephemeroptera diversity worldwide both at generic and specific levels ( Barber-James et al 2008 , Gattolliat and Nieto 2009 , Sartori and Brittain 2015 ). The genera Baetis Leach, 1815 and Cloeon Leach, 1815 have the largest distribution amongst the family and encompass, respectively, 152 and 74 species ( Sartori and Brittain 2015 , Jacobus et al 2019 ). In Europe, Baetis was originally divided into eleven species groups ( Müller-Liebenau 1969 ), of which some are now considered as valid genera ( Alainites Waltz and McCafferty, 1994; Labiobaetis Novikova and Kluge, 1987; Nigrobaetis Novikova and Kluge, 1987) or subgenera ( Patites Thomas and Dia, 1999; Rhodobaetis Jacob, 2003) ( Jacob 2003 , Novikova and Kluge 1987 , Thomas and Dia 2000 , Waltz et al 1994 ).…”

Aquatic insect assemblages in four urban lakes of Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

“…In addition to this significant ecosystem function, aquatic insects are very good indicators of human impact on the freshwater ecosystem. The insect orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera are the pollution sensitive groups and are used extensively for aquatic insect biomonitoring programs (Jacobus et al 2019;Morse et al 2019;Andrade et al 2020).…”