Nothing lasts forever

A withering rosebud, the brevity of blossom and the one-day wonder of the mayfly: Nature's ephemeral beauty reminds us of our own finite existence, but melancholy transience also offers moments of magic, discovers Laura Parker

- Laura Parker

EARLY summer is the season of short-lived things. Spring’s sudden showers are succeeded by elusive rainbows, brief blossoms and fleeting glimpses of the sun. Few things epitomise this ephemerality better than the mayfly, an insect the very name of which, Ephemeroptera—from the Greek epi (upon) and hemera (a day)—signifies brevity. Most adult mayflies do not live beyond one day. Yet what a glorious, glamorous few hours of life they have. Clad in silver livery, propelling themselves up into the sunlit air before freefalling down in their thousands, the spinners, as they are known, grab their partners to mate in mid air. Soon, their dance and briefest of encounters is over. The females fall down to the water to lay their eggs and expire—or get snatched by a trout—and the males drift to the riverbank, where hungry birds, frogs and dragonflies await them.

‘The primary function of the adult is reproduction,’ notes Ben Price, principal curator of insects at the Natural History Museum in London. ‘They have only vestigial mouthparts and their digestive systems are filled with air. They can't feed, so they eventually run out of energy.’ He lists many reasons to find mayflies fascinating, among them their unique and ‘very odd’ lifecycle, as the only insects with two winged adult stages, and their usefulness as water-quality indicators. ‘Their short, but interesting lives remind us to live life to the fullest,’ he adds, philosophically.

The mayfly manifestation is much fêted, not least by trout fishermen, for whom the emergence of one species, Ephemera danica, in large numbers in late May and early June heralds ‘duffers’ fortnight’. This is the time when sudden swarms of the green drake mayfly bring a feeding frenzy of trout to the surface of the river—there is no better opportunity for amateurs to make a catch.