Mayflies: The Mating Swarm

[Dawid Loubser]

I am no etymologist, so I have no idea what species this is (but surely, it is a species of Mayfly?). This weekend, I had the opportunity to witness their emergence from the water, their mating swarm, and their quick demise. These photographs were taken in Rivonia, Johannesburg (South Africa).

For kilometers, a strange smoky wispiness indicated the presence of large swarms of these insects.



http://philosomatographer.deviantart.com/art/Mayflies-part-1-65745205

Upon close inspection, the crazy swarm seems to flow with a gentle (though swift), controlled motion, as countless millions of insects each perform a gentle mating flight.



http://philosomatographer.deviantart.com/art/Mayflies-part-2-65745253

This species has three unusually long 'tails' at the back, and each insect flies with a quite extraordinary posture, forming a perfect cross. After many, many tries, this is the best I could manage to isolate one of them in flight, which illustrates this extraordinary posture.



http://philosomatographer.deviantart.com/art/Mayflies-part-3-65745378

Mayflies live an adult life of between 30 minutes and one day (no longer), and after this short life has been spent performing once aerial dance in a swarm, they die and float to oblivion.



http://philosomatographer.deviantart.com/art/Mayflies-part-4-65745479

Apparently, they do this in such numbers that they cause massive problems in e.g. the filtration systems of nuclear reactors and the like, and a bit higher up here in Africa, on this one day when they emerge in countless billions from some of Africa's large lakes (such as Lake Malawi - a.k.a. Lake Nyasa) they are gathered by the locals by the tonne, and are fried into fly cakes (according to a BBC / David Attenborough documentary I saw years ago).

Technical notes

All taken with Canon EOS 1D MkIIN and EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens. The flight shots were taken into the sun to provide a more interesting rendering (and isolate from a darker, uninteresting background). I tried shooting into the swarm with illumination from a ring flash (for complete subject isolation), but in this case, natural sun backlight always offered a more interesting picture in my opinion.

My technique for in-flight closeups were quite simple:I pre-focused manually, stepped into the swarm, and took a shot whenever it appeared as if several were in focus. The most tricky was when I wanted to get a single one into focus - I shot with a big aperture, and took many many tries (would never do this with film!).

I Just wanted to share a little insight into the outwardly apparently boring lives of these drab little insects that emerge once a year.

 

[janet Smith]

Hello Dawid

Superb images, I love the first two, the first one reminds me of the clouds of midges I just experienced in NW Scotland, but they bite - a lot!

Really interesting to read how you achieved the close-ups by pre-focusing, thank goodness for digital, I can only imagine how many you must have taken to get these results. Thank you for sharing - I'd love to try this in Scotland but wouldn't be able to bear the biting!!

 

[Dawid Loubser]

I can only imagine how many you must have taken to get these results.

Thanks for the kind comments Janet! It didn't take that many efforts, actually, about 20 shots all in all. But I agree, thank goodness for digital.

Luckily, these critters do not bite - they do not even have properly developed mouth parts (they have no need for then).

 

[Cem_Usakligil]

.... I Just wanted to share a little insight into the outwardly apparently boring lives of these drab little insects that emerge once a year.

And you have achieved that with flying (pun intended) colors Dawid!
This is really interesting and the pictures really do tell the story.

Thanks a million for sharing and the explanation re. the technique behind it.

Cheers,

 

[Eric Hiss]

I like the 2nd image best - thanks for sharing. But could these really be May flies when its almost October?

 

[Charles L Webster]

Eric,

Dawid is in the Southern Hemisphere, it's spring down there.

 

[nicolas claris]

Hi David
the 2nd picture is magnificient!

I like the composition, the colors, the bokey, fore and background are interactive and create an appeal for the eye…

 

[Dawid Loubser]

the 2nd picture is magnificient!

Thank you Nicolas, the second one is definitely the one I put the most effort into, I think it has a more abstract quality to it (compared to the others). I had a lot of fun during this shoot, trying to connect with this unlikely subject.

 

[Arya Wiese]

The swarm up close just draws me in. very nicely done. I could see something like that hanging on my wall, just inticing people to sit and view it. Thank you for sharing!