Family AMELETOPSIDAE
Compiler and date details
December 2007 - P.J. Suter
Ian Campbell, Chisolm Institute of Technology, Caufield East, Victoria, Australia
Introduction
The family Ameletopsidae comprises four genera of mayflies, all of which have large carnivorous nymphs. The sole Australia genus is Mirawara Harker (Harker 1954; Riek 1955). The others are Ameletopsis Phillips from New Zealand and Chiloporter Lestage and Chaquihua Demoulin from South America. Mirawara is restricted to streams in eastern Australia where it occurs from north of Cairns, Queensland to southern Victoria, but it is strangely absent from Tasmania. The nymphs characteristically are found in stony inland streams and have a diurnal feeding activity (Campbell 1980). The life history of Mirawara aapta was described by Campbell (1986) with development from eggs to adult taking between 9 and 10 months in the Aberfeldy River, Victoria.
References
Campbell, I.C. 1980. Diurnal variation in the activity of Mirawara purpurea in the Aberfeldy River, Victoria. pp. 297-308 in Flannagan, J.F. & Marshall, K.E. (eds). Advances in Ephemeroptera Biology. New York : Plenum Press
Campbell, I.C. 1986. Life histories of some Australian siphlonurid and oligoneurid mayflies (Insecta: Ephemeroptera). Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 37: 261–288
Harker, J.E. 1954. The Ephemeroptera of eastern Australia. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 105: 241–268
Riek, E.F. 1955. Revision of the Australian mayflies (Ephemeroptera). I. Subfamily Siphlonurinae. Australian Journal of Zoology 3: 266–280