Shaking for 200 million years, the life cycle is only one day, the life and death are talking about the mayfly

There is such a sentence in Su Shi's "Red Cliff": "A mayfly is sent to heaven and earth, and it is a drop in the vast ocean." Su Shi compared himself to a mayfly between heaven and earth, thinking that between heaven and earth, he is only like a The corn is so small that it is not worth mentioning.

It's not just Su Shi, many people use the mayfly as a metaphor for the gap between themselves and the world, thinking that everything in the world is eternal, and for everything in the world, their life is as short as a mayfly.

But we should not belittle ourselves. With our own efforts, human beings went from the earth to the moon, from riding a horse to driving a car, and a series of changes were created by our own hands. Life is fragile and small, but it can still be great.

The life of a mayfly

Many people use the phrase "floating life for a day, mayfly for a lifetime" to describe the short life of a mayfly. However, it is such a short life, but it has a history of more than 200 million years on this earth, and it is the "oldest winged insect" in existence.

The mayfly is slender and soft, most of the body length is between 3mm and 27mm, and there is a pair of very long tail whiskers at the end of the abdomen. The larvae are in the water, they will not feed when they are adults, and their life is usually normal. All within 1 day, there is a saying of "morning and dying", which is only the life of most adult worms. There are also adult worms that can only live for a few hours, but there are also tenacious adult worms that can live for about 7 days.

In fact, the life of mayflies is more than one day, because when they are larvae, they will live in freshwater lakes for a year or more. During this stage, they will experience 20 to 24 times of molting, and some even molt. More than 40 times, the mayfly will float from the water to the water surface, climb to the plant stem and wait until sunset, when it emerges into a "sub-adult". The mayfly at this time does not really become an adult, but the manifestation is similar. After emerging from the water, they will stay in the position where they just emerged, and will molt for a day or so to become real adults. This phenomenon of becoming an adult and undergoing molting is only available in insects belonging to the order Mayfly, and this "type of metamorphosis" is called "proto-metamorphosis".

Therefore, the life of the mayfly will experience: egg, larva, sub-adult, adult. Four stages, and when they become adults, there is only one day left in life.

I believe that many people will be like the literati poets mentioned before. After seeing the life of the mayfly, they can't help but think, what is the purpose of such a short life?

In fact, in this nature, not only the mayfly's life is short, but also a creature called "Puya flower", which is a huge herb distributed at an altitude of 3,000 to 4,800 meters in the Andes Mountains of South America. According to the investigation of botanists, they found that this Puya flower blooms only once every 100 years, and the flowering period is only two months, but once the Puya flower blooms, its beauty is overwhelming. Its flower spikes are as high as 10 meters and are dotted with more than 10,000 flowers, which are very gorgeous and no one can compare.

When you think of its beauty in just two months, but a hundred years of waiting, will you still think about "the meaning of life?"

Mayfly's Romance

It was mentioned before that the adult mayflies do not eat. In fact, they chose to give up eating. When they molt, their digestive tracts will be filled with air, forming a closed balloon, allowing them to easily float from the water to the surface. .

I want to give up eating because the mayfly, like the Puya flower, has its own "romance" in its life. In spring and summer, swarms of mayfly males begin to form teams for a romantic "marriage flight".

At this moment when the mayflies are mating, at this time, in order to cherish their short life, the mayflies choose not to eat or drink. Just to focus on finding their mates, keep mating, laying eggs, leaving their traces in this world, and after everything is over, their lives will come to an end.

It's as if the mayfly "lives for love and dies for love", after getting love, it dies contentedly.

The role of the mayfly

So please don't underestimate the greatness of life. After realizing the vastness of the universe and the vastness of the world, I think everyone will be confused and doubt the meaning of life. It's like when you are studying, when you have received too much knowledge, you will feel that you can't start, but when you digest them all, you will find that there is a big gap between your previous self and your current self.

Just like what Su Shi said in the previous article, after seeing the "Mayfly's Romance", although he can still feel his sigh about the shortness of life. But more of you will think that he is inspiring you to cherish time, cherish everything in front of you, and don't wait for time to slip away before you feel sorry.

Moreover, the mayfly not only brings us inspiration, but also brings many practical effects:

Mayflies are very sensitive to the environment, especially hypoxic and acidic environments. In 1675, a biologist from the Netherlands, Jane Wangmaidan, conducted a detailed study of mayflies. He found that mayflies were very abundant in the Netherlands at that time, but until now, there are almost no mayflies in Europe. It is because the mayfly is sensitive to the environment, and the pollution here has seriously affected the growth of the mayfly.

Therefore mayfly can be used as a test standard for water quality.

Also because mayflies are sensitive to acidic environments, acid rain in North America and Europe has destroyed the habitats of many mayfly creatures, which has led to a sharp decline in mayfly creatures, which has also led to a decline in the local fish population. This is because mayflies play a key role in the aquatic food chain.

Although mayflies are "consumers" in water, they are creatures at the front of the food chain. They almost all feed on bacteria and debris, so many fish will eat them. Therefore, when the number of mayflies decreases, the fish will naturally decrease if they are not full.

After reading this article, do you still think that "the meaning of life is related to its length?" In fact, each thing has a different definition of reincarnation, such as: cats and dogs have the lifespan of cats and dogs, people have the lifespan of humans, and turtles have tortoises lifespan.

The length of their existence in this world is different, but is their meaning defined in terms of life? Obviously not. When you are doubting whether the life of a mayfly has meaning, does the tortoise also view people in the same way?

It takes billions of years of evolution for life to have a life as intelligent as human beings. Therefore, we should cherish our own life and not waste time for the so-called meaning.

There will always be a day when people will shine, just like Puya flowers, although they will experience long waits, loneliness, and suffering, but "hard work will not deceive people" When you shine on that day, I believe anyone Can't cover your light.