Can insects be this big naturally?

Any entomologists out there? On a recent trip to an area that is rumored to have serious cryptozoological activity here in Utah on a variety of levels, the person I was with had a Mayfly or (Ephemeroptera) as it is called scientifically, land on the back of their shirt. They felt it crawling on them and asked that I remove whatever it was. When I rushed over I immediately recognized the bug, since I worked as a flyfishing guide a large portion of my life. What was absolutely unbelievable is that although I have seen this bug thousands of times, I had never seen one this big! My question to any scientists out there is: Is this possible, or is it phenemena? The insect I swooshed of their back was easily 3" long! It was slender, and had regular dimensions of it's smaller cousins. I knnow these bugs well enough to know this is not the norm, I'm just having a hard time believing it is possible. That is my question. I would greatly appreciate any help. Below is a linkk of what it looked like, however it was more yellowish and had black ribbing on the thorax, or body. Note: It was not a Hexagenia and was 3 inches not including tail length.


Similar mayfly:

insects.tamu.edu...


[edit on 24-8-2007 by theutahbigfoothunter]

if you do some research into prehistoric insects you'll see that by those standards, today's insects are all incredibly tiny. cool find though! who knows, maybe you've discovered a new species!

reply to post by theutahbigfoothunter



Sounds like you squashed a trout's dream dinner. I no entomologist, but I do believe that there are at least two subspecies mayflies. I think they are called something like the Eastern and Western.

Maybe you saw a species that not normally found in your area.

i find that insect posted to be relatively small. in fact if you go here: www.boneroom.com they have insects up to fifteen inches on display available for purchase.

[edit on 8/24/2007 by agent violet]

I guess my point is, I am very familiar with this type of insect and found it very hard to believe it could become that large without being of the hexagenia order. I agree with you however that some insects are much much larger than others. This particular insect however has a very short lifespan in it's winged state, therefore not a lot of time to grow. At least not in this state. I'm still pondering goping back to try to see if any other varieties share some of the same traits.

Theutahbigfoothunter, you're quite right, 3 inches is pretty big for a mayfly (average sizes are about 10-20 mm). And actually this is a very, VERY interesting topic. (Well if you consider the size of insects interesting... ) The reason? Because it is thought that the presence of trout has a direct influence on the size of mayflies. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Bigger mayflies would be an indication that you'll be less likely to catch trout (or similar predatory fish -or perhaps even other predators) in that area... Here's some interesting reading for you:

Article Extract 1
Article Extract 2

Hope that helps.

Here in my little Canadian city we get a type of mayfly known to us as a shad fly although not nearly as big as the one you described. We get them in the millions every summer. They spawn in the lake then swarm out at night covering buildings, lights and, cars. Luckily they only live a few hours but the wave can last a week or more and the dead ones smell horrible. I did a bit of research and found that mayflies are actually quite ancient dating back up to 300 million years ago. On another note there is a european species that can be up to 5 inches long.
www.shadfly.com...

There's a whole lot of species of mayfly out there, and some are pretty big.

The "ephemeron," Aristotle called the short-lived mayfly, which numbers 2,000 species worldwide. With males measuring up to five inches from head to tail, the Tisza's Palingenia longicauda is Europe's largest mayfly.
magma.nationalgeographic.com...

It may very well have been a mayfly of a species you're not familiar with.