BayToday Picture Play Gallery: Scads of Shads

They are now but a distant memory, however, for visitors to the city the Shad makes an impression that is impossible to forget.

WHAT: The Shadfly - Belonging to the Ephemeroptera family of insects from the Greek ephemeros = "short-lived",
pteron = "wing", referring to the short life span of adults. AKA mayfly, dunes or fishfly. About 2,500 species are known worldwide, including about 630 species in North America. Shads have been placed into an ancient group of insects with the likes of dragonflies and damselflies, some say they date back over 300 million years!

WHERE: Errr everywhere!?! Emerging in droves of thousands from Lake Nippissing.

WHEN: Every summer in North Bay Ontario.

WHY WHY WHY??? Shadflies have a long-standing love affair with our glorious fresh water lakes, especially Lake Nippissing. The pregnant females fly over Lake Nip and dip their wee abdomens in the water to release eggs. (approx 8,000 eggs at a time!) The eggs hatch into nymphs at the bottom of the lake.

Once the water reaches the right temperature the nymphs swim to the surface, shed their skin, fly to shore, mate, die and it starts all over again.

The Good News! All those adult shadflies are an important food source for many animals and fish, in fact several fishing flies are modeled after them. Where you find shads in or around the water, it is usually a sign that the body of water is of good quality.

The Best News! Shadflies lack fully developed mouthparts and do not feed, so they can't bite!

Have a look at our BayToday Shadfly Picture Play photo gallery and view some of the unique challenges the shadfly brings to us North Bayer's.