Phylogenetic Analysis of Mayflies in Aquatic Ecosystems

Mayflies (order Ephemeroptera) represent one of the most ancient lineages of winged insects, occupying freshwater habitats across the globe and serving as sensitive indicators of ecological change. Phylogenetic analysis of mayflies integrates data from morphology, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, and fossil records to reconstruct their evolutionary relationships, trace biogeographical dispersal and reveal cryptic diversity. Advances in next-generation sequencing have enabled the assembly of complete mitogenomes, providing robust frameworks for testing hypotheses on the origins of major clades within Palaeoptera and assessing the monophyly of families such as Heptageniidae, Baetidae and Ephemerellidae. Fossil discoveries from Cretaceous deposits have further enriched our understanding of ancestral lineages and Southern Hemisphere biogeography. Integrative approaches combining genetic distances with larval and adult morphology now illuminate speciation processes, inform conservation priorities and underpin the use of mayfly assemblages in freshwater biomonitoring and ecological restoration projects.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent work has described a novel mayfly family from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil, based on exquisitely preserved fossil specimens. Character analysis of wing venation and body morphology placed the new family within Siphlonuroidea, revealing early Gondwanan connections and systematic affinities with extant Southern Hemisphere lineages. These findings extend the fossil record and refine phylogenetic hypotheses on mayfly diversification during the breakup of Pangaea. In parallel, comprehensive mitogenome sequencing across multiple palaeopteran insects, including representatives of Ephemeroptera, has resolved longstanding debates over the relationships among Ephemeroptera, Odonata and Neoptera. Phylogenetic trees reconstructed under site-heterogeneous and site-homogeneous models now strongly support a monophyletic Palaeoptera clade, with mayflies as sister to dragonflies and damselflies, and collectively sister to the winged Neoptera, thus clarifying early insect evolution.

Phylogenetic Analysis of Mayflies in Aquatic Ecosystems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in phylogenetic analysis of mayflies in aquatic ecosystems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Phylogenetic analysis: Reconstruction of evolutionary relationships among organisms using genetic, morphological or other data to infer patterns of descent.

Mitogenome: The complete mitochondrial genome, often used in insect phylogenetics due to its conserved structure and maternally inherited markers.

DNA barcoding: Use of a standardised gene region, typically cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, to identify species and detect cryptic diversity.

Cryptic species: Distinct evolutionary lineages that are morphologically similar and historically treated as a single species but are genetically divergent.

Integrative taxonomy: An approach combining molecular, morphological and other data types to achieve robust species delimitation and classification.

References

1. A new Gondwanan mayfly family from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation, Brazil (Ephemeroptera: Siphlonuroidea: Astraeopteridae fam. nov.). Scientific Reports (2023).
2. The mitochondrial genomes of palaeopteran insects and insights into the early insect relationships. Scientific Reports (2019).
3. Labiobaetis Novikova & Kluge in Borneo (Ephemeroptera, Baetidae). ZooKeys (2020).
4. Distribution and population genetic variation of cryptic species of the Alpine mayfly Baetis alpinus (Ephemeroptera: Baetidae) in the Central Alps. BMC Ecology and Evolution (2016).
5. Six complete mitochondrial genomes of mayflies from three genera of Ephemerellidae (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) with inversion and translocation of trnI rearrangement and their phylogenetic relationships. PeerJ (2020).