Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Giant Crane Fly


This beautiful insect is a Giant Crane Fly (Tipula abdominalis), they are found throughout Central and Eastern North America. They can be found anywhere there are fresh water streams. These are very large flies, like their name implies. Females measure 5 1/2 inches front to back. Males are generally smaller. The one pictured here was actually a pair mating, they were stuck to the side of our grill cover. My husband hollered for me, he had found a cool insect for me. I rushed to see what he had found, and was shocked to see these huge flies. I had never seen anything like them. I snapped a few pictures and sent one to Bugguide and they ID'd them as the Giant Crane Fly. They remained together for well over an hour. I finally lost interest in them and when I returned later they were gone. 
After mating, the female will lay her eggs within the water, and the young nymphs will live a completely aquatic life. They prefer streams where there is sufficient underwater dead or decaying vegetation. The nymphs are called Leatherjackets.  They will feed on the rotten leaf litter. There will be two generations per year, one in the spring and another in the fall. Many people mistake these large flies for mosquitoes, they are in the same order, Diptera, but they lack any functional mouth parts and therefore cannot bite humans. They do somewhat resemble mosquitoes with those long legs and thin body, and even their nicknames of "Mosquito Hawk" and "Mosquito Eater" elude to them being mosquitoes or perhaps fond of eating them. Neither is true. They are completely harmless to humans. Handling them will be far more dangerous to them, than it will be to you. Their legs are very fragile and become detached with the slightest of efforts. These flies are often attracted to lights at night and will found at your porch lights.

12 comments:

  1. Sheesh! We were just over at Beetles in the Bush and commenting on how the beetle he was featuring had to be the world's most beautiful, and then we come here, see a Crane Fly (which we have to admit we've never taken the time to observe so closely), and are flabergasted at how beautiful it is! Look at those markings! What a world we live in -- thanks for this site which reminded us to remember the beauty found even in unlikely places.

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  2. Nice shot of the crane flies. We have water fairly near our house so crane flies (one species or another) seem to be an ever-present critter under our porch light.

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  3. Kenton & Rebecca you both say such nice things. I am constantly amazed at how people overlook the lowly insect, or view them as something to be stomped on. The diversity in the insect world is truly mind blowing. I am constantly taken by surprise at new and exciting 6 legged creatures.These crane flies were a shocker for me, I have never seen anything so large or beautifully marked as these were.


    Marvin, I know exactly what you mean, our property is bordered by a large creek and we also have tons of crane flies at the porch lights, but this was the first time I had ever sen the particular species. I will have to be on the look out for them next season.

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  4. Thank you Croqui, these are a spectacular species.

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  5. Thank you Paula, they are truly a gorgeous fly.

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  6. Those things are all over in Texas. They are really pretty, but I tend to admire from afar. Besides, they rarely stay in one place for too long anyway, and all too often bump into your face. I think they must have very limited eyesight, since I often see them bashing themselves into the same patch of wall for hours on end whenever they get trapped inside my house.

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  7. In large numbers they can be a bit of a nuisance, crashing into everything, including us. Thankfully they are harmless. I would agree, that they probably do not have very good eyesight. They do seem to crash into an awful lot of things

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  8. I have some great pictures I took this weekend of a pair mating. I live North East of Pittsburgh, Pa. Is there a way I can post them here?

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    1. If you send them to me I can post them on this page and give you credit for them

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