| Author | Harker, J. |
| Year | 1989 |
| Title | Mayflies |
| ISBN | 0 85546 274 4 |
| Series | Naturalists' Handbooks |
| Type | Book/Report |
| How Complete | All the then known British species. Female imagos are identified only to genus, but male imagos are taken to species and nymphs mostly so |
| Source | Naturalists' Handbooks, 13, 56pp, The Richmond Publishing Co. Ltd |
| Illustrations | Line drawings beside text, 4 plates of colour paintings in the centre |
| Review (by Malcolm Storey) | An introductory chapter on Natural History is followed by flow-chart, dichotomous and tabular keys to species (mostly) of nymphs, species of male imagos and genera of female imagos. The next chapter describes techniques and approaches to original work. Appendix 1 gives a checklist with fishermen’s names; these latter should be used with caution as a professional fly tier tells me that fishing flies no longer represent real insects. Appendix 2 describes distribution and swarming behaviour |
| Errata, Corrigenda & Comments | The male of *Cloeon dipterum* is incorrectly illustrated as having a yellow-brown band along the costal margin of the forewing (plate 1). Only the female has this; the male wings are hyaline. The key to 3-tailed female imagines (p37) is said to be improved by swapping couplets 5 and 6 (ie couplet 6 becomes 5 with 2nd alternative leading to 6; couplet 5 becomes 6 with first alternative leading to 7). There is a downloadable replacement page. |
| Examine |  Stereo Microscope |
| Specimen Preparation | Nymphs living or in spirit, adults living or pinned. |
| Identification difficulty | Relatively straightforward, although some are more difficult. Lost tail filaments and hard-to-see hindwings are the two main problems |
