Family Tipulidae
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Can you help me identify this bug?
October 20, 2009
Found and took a photo of this bug with long legs, wings and a pointy rear end. Can you please identify him for me? Thank you.
Alex Tosh
Presidio, San Francisco, CA
Crane Fly
Hi Alex,
This is a nice detailed image of a Crane Fly. They are harmless.
Long legged large beauty
August 31, 2009
Visiting a friend on Deer Isle in Maine, I found this creature on her screened in porch. It was late August. Not able to find anything close to it in my Peterson guide. Pretty large – It’s body alone was about 2 1/5 inches long. Any ideas?
Gianna
Deer Isle, Maine
Giant Eastern Crane Fly
Dear Gianna,
Your spectacular photograph of the spectacular Giant Eastern Crane Fly, Pedicia albivitta, is a wonderful addition to our site. According to BugGuide: “This species is one of the largest [Crane Flies] in northeastern United States and Canada, the other being Tipula abdominalis.” Since it is the first of the month, there is always a bit of a lag time for our new postings to have images show live.
What is this flying thing?
July 20, 2009
Found this in the hall of our apartment complex. Thought it was a wasp of some sort until closer inspection. Still not sure though. It’s about 3-5 inches long and flies like a mosquito with its legs down. Not graceful like a dragonfly.
Curious in Japan
Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan
Dear Curious,
This is some species of Crane Fly in the infraorder Tipulomorpha, but beyond that, we will need to seed professional assistance. The feathered antennae are unusual.
Update
Hi Daniel:
I believe the unknown Crane fly (family Tipulidae) is in the subfamily Ctenophorinae and the genus Ctenophora (=Cnemoncosis). Apparently there are nine representatives of the genus in Japan, but closest match I can find appears to be C. ishiharai. It is a very unusual looking crane fly. Regards.
Karl
Thank you for the help. The antennae looked like those of several mothes.
Thank you again. My sons are huge bug collectors with a strict rule of not killing anything, even the centipedes that get into the house once in awhile.
Can’t Find This Bug Anywhere!!
Thu, May 21, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Dear WTB:
A friend of mine and I were in the parking lot of PetCo, and this not-so-little flier landed on my friends shirt. We thought it looked pretty interesting, so we snapped a few pics with our cell phones(which is the photo isn’t the best) I have looked all over the internet and in all of my field guides and I can not for the life of me identify this one. Any ideas? Thanks!
Corey
Upstate NY, Watertown
Phantom Crane Fly
Dear Corey,
The Phantom Crane Fly, Bittacomorpha clavipes, is a fascinating looking creature. We believe the coloration helps them to appear to vanish and reappear while flying, hence the name phantom.
In a stump, flies, mates. What is it?
Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 4:25 PM
My wife and I have a really decayed stump that we are planing on removing and planting a garden over. So I decided to kick it a bit to see how easy it would be to remove. It crumbled very easily (as does the ground around it where the roots have rotted) but a bunch of these bugs flew out. Well, they hovered because they were busy mating, ends stuck together and flew awkwardly around.
The bugs themselves are dark brown with light yellowish markings. The karings are kinda stripey down the abdomen and a blotch on either side of the thorax. The head looks tiny and curled under the round thorax. I caught a mating pair, one has what looks like a stinger, but I think I know what it really is *winks*. They are about an inch long, with thin long smoke colored wings.
Brian
Tacoma, WA
Crane Flies
Dear Brian,
What a wonderful account of the mating activity of these Crane Flies. We believe they are Ctenophora vittata – Ctenophora angustipennis as evidenced by the images posted to BugGuide. The “stinger” is actually the ovipositor, and it is the female that is in possession of it. We are going to contact Chen Young at the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website to see if he can elaborate on the mating activity you witnessed. Our guess is that these adults are newly emerged. Adult Crane Flies don’t feed, so they don’t live long anyways. The larvae, sometimes called Leatherjackets, eat decaying organic material, and perhaps they were in the stump as larvae. We are also going to tag your images Bug Love despite the mating activity being observed and not documented.
Crane Flies
hitchhiker on a crane fly
Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 11:10 AM
I was taking pictures of the moths and bugs surrounding our outside light last night and after enlarging this shot of a crane fly I noticed this little white guy waving from a rear leg while hanging on for dear life. I know crane flies don’t carry their young around so I was wondering what it is. I sent you a larger file so you can enlarge it enough to see the critter.
Larry
Sonoma County, California
Crane Fly with Hitchhiker
Hi Larry,
When we saw your subject line, we thought the hitchhiker must be either a mite or a pseudoscorpion, the two common phoretic organisms that are frequent subjects of our identifications. Phoresy is a nice scientific name for opportunistic hitchhiking. Your creature appears to be an insect, though we are uncertain of its identity, and we wonder if the hitchhiking may have been accidental. We will check with Eric Eaton to see if he has an opinion on this.
Phoretic Insect? or Accidental Hitchhiker???
Update: Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Daniel:
LOL! I’m sorry, I just had to laugh. The “hitchhiker” is a shed exoskeleton, most likely from an aphid that might have used the crane fly’s leg as a place to perch while molting. I laugh out of empathy because I’ve made the same kind of assumption myself, many times, when presented with unfamiliar circumstances.
Eric
What is this?
Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 3:36 PM
These were found in an old acorn mortar in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles in February. They don’t move when touched.
Richard
Santa Monica Mountains, California
Leatherjackets
Hi Richard,
These look like Leatherjackets or Leatherbacks, the larval form of the Crane Fly, a group of flies in the family Tipulidae.
unknown insect
Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 8:07 AM
I don’t even know what order to start searching. On a winter day (30degreesF) I found this insect crawling on the sidewalk near the entrance to a storage area in our nature center. I had just been in the storage area so it is possible that I displaced it from the heated area into the cold. It caught my eye because a.) it was a bug crawling around on a cold winter day, b.) it looked/moved like a spider but wasn’t. As you can see from the photos, its about 1/4 inch long, not including legs. Also, it occasionally pulled its legs in very tight to its body in a posture that seemed defensive. I was unable to get a photo of that because it never stayed that way for long.
Thanks for your awesome website. You might want to create some forum/support group for WTB addicts like me who check your site 3 times a day.
Vince
Northern Indiana
Wingless Winter Crane Fly
Hi Vince,
Thanks so much for your kind letter. We were a bit stumped by this image as well, so we contacted Eric Eaton before posting. Here is what we wrote to Eric and how he responded
Hi Eric,
I didn’t want to appear to be a total moron on this one, so I didn’t
want to post it until I contacted you. It sure looks like a fly to me, possibly
a type of crane fly, but I’m not having any luck with the ID. Can you
assist?
Daniel
Wingless Winter Crane Fly
Daniel:
Oh, wow, what a cool find! This is a wingless crane fly, probably in the genus Chionea (known as snow flies). We could use this image over at Bugguide where Chen Young could probably ID it to species.
Eric
P.S. insects can make a moron out of ANYBODY! LOL!
So Vince,
We are hoping you will post these images to BugGuide as well and we will contact Dr. Chen Young at the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website to see if he can provide a species identification. He may also request permission to post your images.
Vince wrote back, but we missed it
I found it…
Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 7:05 AM
Yesterday I sent a pic of a mystery insect. Later in the day, after emails to entomologists around the world, I found out that the insect is a wingless snowfly. It’s related to craneflies and is in the genus Chionea. Here are two good links about snowflies:
http:// somethingscrawlinginmyhair.com/2008/01/19/snow-fly/
http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/limoniinae.htm
and one more picture, with the brightness enhanced.
Vince
Northern Indiana
Thanks a million. Check your INBOX for a follow up submission I sent. I was able to ID it, and found some links to some good info on it. I’ll be sure to contact Eric Eaton and Dr. Young about it.
As a naturalist, I do school programs and public programs for thousands of people every year. Insects are my favorite topic and whenever I do an insect program I am sure to tell people about your website.
Keep up the good work.
Vince
crane fly?
You have one of my all-time favorite sites on the internet. I really appreciate what you guys do.
I’m attaching two pictures of a large insect that appears to me to be a kind of crane fly. I couldn’t locate one on your site (though I know I may have just overlooked it), and tried a few others before sending it to you. I found it on our back door in north-central Arkansas at the beginning of October, 2008. Excluding the legs, its body was a good 5 centimeters long. Its antennae are interestingly-segmented, and its oversize thorax really caught my attention. I’d love it if you have the time ID this one for me.
Thanks!
Kurt Grafton
Batesville, Arkansas, USA
Giant Crane Fly
Hi Kurt,
We believe your Crane Fly is a Giant Crane Fly, Tipula abdominalis. We searched the best Crane Fly identification site, the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania, and located it, and the double checked on BugGuide. According to BugGuide, the: “large size coupled with black velvety patches on thorax is diagnostic feature.” The Crane Flies of Pennsylvania site indicates: “The largest crane fly in the state of Pennsylvania, the adult of this species has a brownish gray thorax with a velvety black area on the dorsal side. The abdomen is orange with a black line on the side, and the posterior end of the abdomen is black. The wings are semitransparent with several brown areas along the front edge. The females reach about 40 mm in size, while the males are slightly smaller. The larvae of this species are aquatic and among the largest and most common aquatic invertebrates in streams of wooded areas, and are sought out as bait for fish. Larvae feed on decomposing leaves, thus playing an important role of breaking down organic matter in the water. Two generations occur, more numerous in late summer than in spring.”
Giant Crane Fly
strange flying creature
Hi,
You have a great website, it’s helped me identify some critters in my area already.
If you have time to check this one out, I’d be grateful. I live in southeast Pennsylvania and this past July I was hiking at a State park and came across two of these in the woods. I’ve never seen them before. I tried searching your website but I’m not even sure what insect family they’re in. They were about an inch long and the strangest thing I observed was how they flew. They seemed to just float and were almost vertical as they moved slowly thru the air. The one in the photo drifted toward a plant and just sort of hung onto it when I took the picture. Thanks for any help,
Jaime
Phantom Crane Fly
Hi Jaime,
What a positively gorgeous image of a Phantom Crane Fly, Bittacomorpha clavipes. As we are still trying to transition to our new format, we are not posting live, but your image will be on the web as soon as our transition is complete.
Wasp family or bizarre fly?
I found this at my fathers cottage today near Maniwaki, Quebec (Canada). It was hanging on the siding first thing in the morning and was there when we left in the evening. It was around three inches long (from leg tip to leg tip). After browsing your wonderful site, I thought it might be some sort of wasp (related to the Pelecinid) but it seems to fall into the fly category as it has only two wings plus halteres. Any help would be appreciated.
Good call on the fly. This is a Giant Eastern Crane Fly, Pedicia albivitta. Because they are so distinctive, we have split Crane Flies from other flies and given them a distinct page on our site.
Butt thumper
Dear Bugman,
Last evening after a very good downpour, I was in our backyard in Central PA and noticed this ? thumping his or her butt on the soft ground. It would thump and fly and thump and fly and then thump and wait. I believe it is depositing eggs but am not sure. I also am not sure what it is. Any help would be appreciated. Sincerely
Larry Lochner
Hollidaysburg, PA
Hi Larry,
Your insect is a Crane Fly in the family Tipulidae, and the behavior you describe is that of a female Crane Fly laying eggs. Female Crane Flies often oviposit in the ground, and the larvae, known as Leatherbacks, feed on detritus. For more on the life cycle of a Crane Fly, visit the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website. We are not sure of the species but we will try to contact Dr. Chen Young to see if he can assist.
Update: (06/18/2008)
Hello Daniel,
The image showed up okay this time and it looks like a female of Nephrotoma virescens to me. http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/tipulinae.htm#Nephrotoma_virescens This species usually when freshly emerged are greenish in color and gradually turning greenish yellow as in this image. There is another species Nephrotoma alterna http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/tipulinae.htm#Nephrotoma%20alterna which also has nice patterns on the top of the thorax. But I believe yours is a N. virescens. Thanks,
Chen
