They were swarming the rocks beside a river near me. Saw a couple land on a nice flat one, figured I would try a timelapse, and make a gif. I reduced the image size to control the MB's, but I do have full rez.
Mayflies are unique, as they have 3 stages of life cycle, instead of a damselfy or dragonflies 2 stages. Nymph -> subimage -> imago. What you are seeing below is a mayfly transforming from the subimago to the imago form. After they morph, they sun on a warm sunny surface to dry out anf harden then they mate and die, typically in less then a day.
I haven't much experience making gifs. Feel free to make suggestions of how to make it better.
Mayfly (Baetidae) morph by Trevor, on FlickrBoth were taken with a 100mm macro with extension tubes
