Mechanisms for devolving microflows from aggregate flows are disclosed. An ingress node receives a packet that matches an aggregate flow entry in a flow table. A determination that a devolve action is associated with the aggregate flow entry is made. Based on the determination that the devolve action is associated with the aggregate flow entry, a microflow flow entry is generated in the flow table to define a microflow. The microflow flow entry includes header information extracted from the packet. Microflow generation information that identifies the microflow is sent to a controller node. It is determined that the microflow has timed out based on an idle timeout period of time. In response to determining that the microflow has timed out, microflow termination information that includes path measurement metric information associated with the microflow is sent to the controller node.