Professor discovers new species of Mayfly

R. Wills Flowers, Ph.D., a Florida A&M University (FAMU) professor and Fulbright Scholar, recently traveled to Ecuador to do field research when he came across a “beautiful” group of mayflies.

After checking the species’ characteristics against others in FAMU’s research collection, Flowers discovered that he had uncovered a new species of mayfly, Thraulodes quevedoensis, in Quevedo, Ecuador.

Mayflies belong to a group that is intolerant of pollution, yet this new species was found in a polluted stream. According to Flowers, mayflies and other aquatic insects are used as indicators of water quality, a method called biomonitoring. The more sensitive organisms – principally mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies – present in a sample, the better the water quality.

Florida is a world leader in biomonitoring and according to Flowers, the William L. Peters Museum Collection of Aquatic Insects, housed in the FAMU College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture, is the largest collection of mayfly research in the world.