The mayfly species ‘Ecdyonurus venosus’ mating. The female is on top, the male below. A. Staniczek / SMNS Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Researchers studying copulation in mayflies pulled off a stunt worthy of the naughtiest ancient Greek myths. Just like Hephaestus used an unbreakable net to trap his wife Aphrodite and her lover Ares in the middle of their adulterous act, a team of scientists in Germany deployed a long-handled net to catch mating insects , and then used freezing spray to preserve the moment for study.  And that’s not even the strangest part of the study titled, “When mayflies have an erection: functional morphology of the genitalia in Ecdyonurus .”  Frozen in the act Mayflies are a group of strange winged insects with dramatic life cycles. They live as larvae in freshwater for most of their lives.…