Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae of Gunnison County, ColoradoParaleptophlebia memorialis
Prong-gilled Mayfly (Eaton) 1884
Updated 25 November 2025
TSN 101214
Locations Collected
East Elk Creek (Argyle and Edmunds, 1962).
Good Links
On this website:
Introduction to Paraleptophlebia
Other Websites:
Photos, Map, Taxon Identifier Numbers - from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Paraleptophlebia memorialis at Gbif
Photos, Map, Museums, DNA - Barcode of Life Data System
References
Argyle,DW; Edmunds,GF 1962 Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of the Curecanti Reservoir Basins Gunnison River, Colorado. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 59 (8) 178-189.
Quote from page 188: "Only one station revealed the presence of this species. The record is from an early collection and the size of the nymphs plus the known biology of this species indicated that the main emergence had passed before intensive collections were made. The specimens were from a riffle area near the bank. "
Eaton,AE 1883-1888 A revisional monograph of recent Ephemeridae or mayflies. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Second Series, Zoology 3:1-352, 65 pl.
After this insect was first described as Leptophlebia pallipes, Eaton noticed the species name pallipes was already taken so he redescribed this animal as Leptophlebia memorialis on page 98.
Gilpin,BR and Brusven,MA 1970 Food habits and ecology of mayflies of the St. Maries River in Idaho. Melanderia 4:19-40. PDF
Kilgore,JL and Allen,RK 1973 Mayflies of the Southwest: new species, descriptions, and records (Ephemeroptera). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 66(2):321-332. PDF
Describes the larvae of P. memorialis, among other things.
McCafferty,WP; Durfee,RS and Kondratieff,BC 1993 Colorado mayflies (Ephemeroptera): an annotated inventory. Southwestern Naturalist 38 (3) 252-274. PDF
Quote from page 263: "The larvae of this western species can easily be confused with those of P. heteronea."
McCafferty,WP and Provonsha,AV The Mayflies of North AmericaSpecies List (Version 8Feb2011)
Here is the geographic range and synonyms:
Paraleptophlebia memorialis (Eaton), 1884 [CAN:NW;MEX:SW;USA:NW,SW]
* Leptophlebia memorialis Eaton, 1884 (renam.)
* Leptophlebia pallipes Hagen, 1875 (hom.: L. pallipes (Walker), 1853)
* Paraleptophlebia pallipes (Hagen), 1875 (hom.comb.)
Zuellig,RE; Heinold,BD; Kondratieff,BC and Ruiter,DE 2012 Diversity and Distribution of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera), Stoneflies (Plecoptera), and Caddisflies (Trichoptera) of the South Platte River Basin, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming, 1873-2010. U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 606, 257 p. PDF - caution 46MB
Quote from page 36: " A widely distributed Western North American species (Harper and Harper, 1986; Allen and Murvosh, 1987) that has been infrequently collected in the SPRB. Argyle and Edmunds (1962) reported this species as Leptophlebia pallipes Hagen in Western Colorado. McCafferty and others (1993) reported additional records from Larimer County; however, those records were based on larval identifications and may not be reliable (Rader and Ward, 1989; Harper and Harper, 1986)." The elevation range is 4,950-6,750 feet and the adults emerge from April-July.
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