Life history, secondary production and trophic basis of two dominant mayflies in a subtropical stream of China

Abstract

Mayflies constitute a major part of macroinvertebrate biomass and production in lotic ecosystems, and play an important role in material cycle and energy flow. There are more than 250 species of mayflies in rivers and streams of China. In order to learn their ecological functions, an investigation on life cycle, production and trophic basis of dominant species of mayflies in a second-order branch of Hanjiang River basin, Hubei, China was carried out during June 2003 to June 2004. The results showed that the dominant mayfly species Epeorus sp. and Caenis sp. developed two generations per year; in term of Epeorus sp., putation mainly occurred in spring and then from late summer to early autumn, while Caenis sp. pupated in spring and autumn. The abundance and biomass of the Epeorus sp. population peaked twice (1 226 ind/m2, 3.142 5g/m2) in April and June. Caenis sp. also had two peaks (307ind/m2, 1.590 g/m2), but in February and June. Cohort production and cohort P/B ratio of Epeorus sp. were 161.009 g/m2 wet weight and 7.7, respectively, and annual production and P/B ratio were 267.46g/m2.a wet weight and 15.4, respectively; cohort production and P/B ratio of Caenis sp. were 26.7995g/m2 wet weight and 4.7, its annual production and P/B ratio were 53.60 g/m2.a wet weight and 9.4, respectively. For Epeorus sp., the proportions contributing to secondary production of the main food types were: amorphous detritus, 33.46%; fungi, 10.83%; vascular plant detritus, 1.80%; diatoms, 53.90%; for Caenis sp., the proportions were 70.79%, 6.90%, 3.52% and 18.77%, respectively.