Abstract
Tisza mayflies, Palingenia longicauda (Olivier 1791), swarm exclusively over the river Tisza (from which the name of the mayfly was derived). This river is bordered by a high vertical wall of trees and bushes, which hinder P. longicauda to move away horizontally from the water. During swarming, Tisza mayflies fly immediately above the river in such a way that their cerci touch the water frequently or sweep its surface. This continuous close connection with water and the vertical wall of the shore and riparian vegetation result in that Tisza mayflies never leave the water surface; consequently, they need not search for water. Several Ephemeroptera species move away far from water and return to it guided by the horizontal polarization of water-reflected light. To reveal whether also P. longicauda is or is not polarotactic, we performed a field experiment during the very short swarming period of Tisza mayflies. We show here that also P. longicauda has positive polarotaxis, which, however, can be observed only under unnatural conditions, when the animals are displaced from the water and then released above artificial test surfaces. P. longicauda is the first species in which polarotactic water detection is demonstrated albeit it never leaves the water surface, and thus, a polarotactic water detection seems unnecessary for it. The polarotactic behaviour of Tisza mayflies explains the earlier observation that these insects swarm above wet asphalt roads running next to river Tisza.
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Acknowledgment
We are grateful for the equipment donation of the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation received by G. Horváth. Many thanks are due to Dr. Csongor Heitler for his logistical support. We thank also László Demeter and István Lipcsei who helped us to catch mayflies above the river Tisza with their motor boats and to the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. We thank Sandor Zsila for the photographs in Fig. 1c, d.
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Kriska, G., Bernáth, B. & Horváth, G. Positive polarotaxis in a mayfly that never leaves the water surface: polarotactic water detection in Palingenia longicauda (Ephemeroptera). Naturwissenschaften 94, 148–154 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0180-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-006-0180-4