Tiszavirág - Über Mayfly

[sandbender]

Once every three years the Tiszavirág 'explode' out of the rivers of Hungary, this highly protected insect is from the same order as the Mayfly (Ephemeroptera), however these beasts can measure 12 cm from 'nose' to 'tail'

Some quite incredible photographs can be viewed here.

The Wikipedia entry (in every language but English) is here.

 

[Asa Samuel]

Wow, very nice photographs!

Wouldn't want to go canoeing through a swarm of them!

 

[SimonM]

"explode" is the right word.

Wow....

 

[alpha_centaur]

Wouldn't want to go canoeing through a swarm of them!

I'm thinking what it would be like to pass through a cloud of them on the motorbike
:yikes:

 

[Bushwhacker]

Jesus! There must some big fish in there with that amount of food.
Imagine casting an imitation fly of one of those beasts.

 

[Wallenstein]

The german name for them is "Eintagsfliegen"... lit. "one day flies".

 

[sandbender]

Jesus! There must some big fish in there with that amount of food.
Imagine casting an imitation fly of one of those beasts.

Well, biggish

Caught on the Tisza.

The german name for them is "Eintagsfliegen"... lit. "one day flies".

Yep, one day life-span.

 

[Bushwhacker]

Nice Pike, that must be way over 15lb.

 

[Asa Samuel]

I'm thinking what it would be like to pass through a cloud of them on the motorbike
:yikes:

Might need a cloth to wipe your visor after that!

 

[British Red]

Stunning - never seen them before - cheers!

 

[sandbender]

A seven minute video (Hungarian audio) on the youtubes features some impressive footage of them 'skating' across the water and the adult form emerging from the 'subimago'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lQrp50e5kc

 

[mayfly]

Fascinating. I've seen pretty dense clouds of mayflies in several places in the States and even in Hampshire when I was little. But I've never seen any mayflies that size before - they're huge! I was on the Lambourn river last week and this year the hatch has been very sporadic at best The usual culprits move into sharp focus: pollution, climate change, 'modern' farming and water abstraction. But that Hungarian hatch looks phenomenal, a much brighter note Thanks for sharing.

 

[sandbender]

"...But that Hungarian hatch looks phenomenal, a much brighter note...."

Sadly not so bright

The population is in decline for several reasons, pollution being the main one. Additionally they are a favorite bait used by fishermen and even though they are highly protected, illegal collection of the larvae occurs, National Park staff, the Water Police, and other organizations patrol the river to safeguard the mayflies. Hungarian law specifies that mayfly specimens cannot be collected, neither alive nor dead!

A few years back an Australian Gold mining firm working in Romania managed to flood the Tisza with cyanide killing all the river life.

"Fishermen and farmers across central and eastern Europe used nets and pitchforks to land more than 100 tons of dead bream, carp, pike and other species from the rank-smelling waters. Otters, endangered white-tailed eagles, herons, even bacteria perished. Along one stretch of river near the Hungary-Romania border concentrations reached up to 800 times the levels considered safe for drinking."​

For those interested some information on that event is here and an English language site about the 'Tisza Mayfly' is here.

Thanks for looking.