ˈmay-fly
[f. May n.3 + fly n.]
1. An insect of the family Ephemeridæ; esp. as an angler's name for Ephemera vulgata and E. dania or an artificial fly made in imitation of either of these.
| 1651–3 T. Barker Art of Angling 6 As for the May-Flie you shall have them alwayes playing at the River side. 1653 Walton Angler iv. 115 First for a May-flie, you may make his body with greenish coloured crewel. 1769 G. White Selborne (1789) 68 What time the may-fly haunts the pool or stream. 1856 ‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Rural Sports §650 Caddies are the larvæ of the ephemera, or May-fly, as well as the stone-fly and the caddis-fly. 1867 F. Francis Angling vi. (1880) 223 The May Fly or Green Drake, called in Wales the Cadow. |
2. An insect of the family Phryganeidæ or Sianidæ (e.g. Sialis lutaria); the caddis-fly.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. ix. (1818) I. 282 Phryganeæ [in their imago state are called] may-flies (though this last denomination properly belongs only to the Sialis lutaria..and Ephemeræ. Ibid. II. 295 [The larvæ] of the true may-fly (Semblis lutaria, F.)..use their legs in swimming. |
† 3. A dragon-fly. Obs.
| 1744 Collinson in Phil. Trans. XLIV. 329 The May Flies, a Species of Libella. 1750 Ibid. XLVI. 400 A further Account of the Libellæ or May-flies, from Mr. John Bartram of Pensylvania. |
4. attrib., as may-fly season, may-fly tribe.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 240 The May-fly tribe (Phryganea, L., Trichoptera, K.). 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. ix, But now came on the may-fly season. |