Overview
The single Australian species,
Ephemerellina
(
Austremerella
)
picta
, was described from a small, stony stream in southern Qld (Riek 1963; Allen 1965). Nymphs are less flattened than those of leptophlebiids, and bear a prominent, double row of spines dorsally on the abdomen. They possess gills on abdominal segments 2-6; the dorsal portion of each gill is plate-like and the ventral portion consists of 2 rows of overlapping lobes. Adults have detached marginal intercalary veins and 1 or 2 long intercalaries between veins MP
2
and CuA in the fore wings.
Distribution
The family is widespread in the Holarctic with genera also occurring in South America, Asia and South Africa. The subfamily in which the Australian species has been placed, T
eloganodinae
, is primarily Ethiopian and Oriental in distribution, and
Ephemerellina s.str.
is limited in distribution to 2 provinces in China and South Africa.