Frank Swain is a science writer and blogger. He is based in the UK.
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Keep up to date with RSSNature is big. Really big! The US National Weather Service revealed this image taken last Saturday showing a massive swarm of newly-hatched mayflies erupting from the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wisconsin.
The swarm was captured using doppler radar, which is used to track the direction and velocity of distant objects (it's the same type of technology used by traffic police in speed guns). The National Weather Service says:
The bugs are showing up as bright pink, purple, and white colors along the Mississippi River mainly south of La Crosse, WI. After the bugs hatch off the water and river areas, they are caught in the south-southeast winds while airborne for about 10-20 minutes.
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Comments
Wow!
Really puts the local swarms in perspective.
Posted by: Rob Jase | June 4, 2010 1:09 PM
The mayflies are legendary in La Crosse. Now we have proof for people who don't believe us!
Posted by: Jessica | June 4, 2010 5:47 PM
two days ago a swarm just covered our parking lot at my work. The weird thing for me is, it was like they all died at once and fell to the ground. We had to swept our whole parking lot.It was a huge blanket of parished giant mayflies. Why did they all die parish at once?
Posted by: Chrissie | July 12, 2010 9:12 PM
mayflies only live for 24 hours, after that they most likely just fall dead all at once, they live together and die together... sweet but kinda sad :)
Posted by: gerr | August 2, 2011 1:24 AM