Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae of Gunnison County, ColoradoIntroduction to the mayfly genus Epeorus
Slate Dun, Quill Gordon, Flat Headed Mayfly, Yellow Quill, Little MaryattsEaton 1881
Updated 17 Dec 2009
TSN 100626
Notice the black triangular shaped wingpads on this Epeorus. That indicates this animal will emerge as an adult today or in the next few days. Ideally, when identifying larvae you have animals with dark or black wingpads. This is the sort of mayfly you want when an identification key states that it only works with "mature" nymphs.
Species Checklist
Epeorus albertae
Epeorus deceptivus
Epeorus grandis
Epeorus longimanus
The stonefly Megarcys signata appears to be chasing an Epeorus nymph who is swimming away. These animals were caught and released from the upper East River on the 17th of July 2009.Good Links
On this website:
Introduction to Iron
Heptageniidae Introduction
Other Websites:
Photos of Epeorus larvae from the McKenzie River, Oregon http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~dmason/Mckenzie/bugs/epeorus.html
Checklist of North American Epeorus from Mayfly Central http://www.entm.purdue.edu/entomology/research/mayfly/species.html#GenusEpeorus
 This animal was under a rock in a stream in the upper East River Valley 18 July 2007.References
Allan,JD 1978 Diet of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis Mitchell) and Brown Trout (Salmo trutta L.) in an alpine stream. Internationale Vereinigung für Theoretische und Angewandte Limnologie Verhandlungen 20, 2045-2050.
Allan,JD; Flecker,AS 1989 The mating biology of a mass-swarming mayfly. Animal behavior 37, 361-371.
Buchwalter,DB; Luoma,SN 2005 Differences indissolved cadmium and zinc uptake among stream insects: mechanistic explanations. Environmental Science and Technology 39, 498-504.
Eaton AE. 1881 An announcement of new genera of the Ephemeridae. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 18:21-27.
The genus Epeorus is described on page 26.
Edmunds,GF; Allen,RK 1964 The Rocky Mountain species of Epeorus (Iron) Eaton (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 37 4, 275-288.
Jensen,SL 1966 The Mayflies of Idaho (Ephemeroptera). M.S. Thesis, University of Utah, Utah. 364 p.
Quote from page 161 " The following combinations of characters serve to distinguish this genus from all other genera of Heptageniidae occurring in Idaho:
Lehmkuhl,DM 1968 Observations on the life histories of four species of Epeorus in western Oregon (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 44(2):129-137. PDF
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment Data Warehouse (NAWQA) shows this species is present in Gunnison County. Data as of 1Sep2005
Webb JM; McCafferty WP. 2006. Contribution to the taxonomy of Eastern North American Epeorus Eaton (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae). Zootaxa 1128: 57-64.
D. Zitnan, I. Zitnanová, I. Spalovská, P. Takác, Y. Park and M. E. Adams 2003 Conservation of ecdysis-triggering hormone signalling in insects. The Journal of Experimental Biology 206, 1275-1289. Full Text
One of their study animals was Epeorus sp.
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