IDENTIFICATION
Location:  Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada
August 27, 2010 11:51 am
This insect was seen flying in jewelweed beside a marshy area. It can be seen quite well in the photos, however, when in flight, this fragile bug is very difficult to focus on given how transparent it is. It was first spotted in July & was still in evidence in early August. We started to refer to these little creatures as ”the fairies” due to their ethereal appearance.
Anne

Phantom Crane Fly

Hi Anne,
It is believed that the markings and coloration of the Phantom Crane Fly enable it to avoid predation as it seems to disappear and reappear as it feebly flies through the sun dappled habitat it prefers.

Phantom Crane Fly

Daniel -
Thank you so much for this information. We were all quite intrigued by this dear little fellow and it’s kind of fun to be able to put a name to him.
Your prompt response is very much appreciated.
Anne

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Orange fllying insect in Lancaster, CA
Location:  Lancaster, CA
July 19, 2010 9:17 pm
I have never seen these before and now the grass in my yard has quite a few of these flying around, what is it?
How to handle?

Crane Fly

Dear How to handle?,
We did not anticipate being able to easily identify your species of Crane Fly, but by doing a web search of Crane Fly and California, we were led to the UC Irvine website of the Flies of Orange County.  It was easy enough to match your photo to the images of Nephrotoma wulpiana on the Flies of Orange County Crane Fly section.  We verified that on BugGuide, where we learned that this is one of the Tiger Crane Flies and it is a west coast species reported from California and Washington.

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possible ichneumon wasp?
June 10, 2010
Hi Bugman,
I was wondering if you could help me identify this insect–I was thinking it was some sort of ichneumon wasp? I found it fluttering around on the ground; it was around 1.5″ long. I think the antennae are fascinating!
Dakota
Western North Carolina

Crane Fly: male Ctenophora nubecula

Hi Dakota,
This is sure an interesting Crane Fly.  The feathered antennae are very distinctive.  We are going to begin searching the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website in the hopes of properly identifying this spectacular Crane Fly.  The closest match we found, but one that is definitely not your species, is Limonia (Rhipidia) duplicata (Doane) on the Limoniinae subfamily page. BugGuide has an image of a Crane Fly from Alaska in the genus Ctenophora that also has pectinate antennae, but again, it is not a match.  We went back and looked at the genus Ctenophora on the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website and we believe it must be the correct genus, but still no hit on species.  We will try to write to Dr. Chen Young for assistance.

Crane Fly: male Ctenophora nubecula

Dr. Chen Young provided identification
Hi Daneil,
This is a male Ctenophora nubecula  http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/tipulinae.htm#Ctenophora_(Ctenophora)_nubecula and here is a key http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/idkeys.htm#23A to tell all the Ctenophora species apart in east North America.
Daneil, I was wondering if you would ask the person submitted the images if it would be okay for me to post these two images on the PA crane fly website.  The second image truely showed the characters of the structure of the antennae of this species.  A higer resolution of the images would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Chen

Thanks so much for all the information, and the speedy response! I would love to have my photos on the crane fly website. If he or any of his crane fly brethren come around again, I’ll try to capture a few shots.
Thanks again,
Dakota

Hi Daniel,
Thank you for all of your efforts and the images.  Please also give my regards to Dakota.
Best wishes,
Chen

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Damsel fly?
May 13, 2010
Here again is another bug we had the pleasure of seeing in the Porcupine Mountains in August. This one, I also searched in the Kaufman’s field guide to North American insects but was unable to find. If you could help with this as well, my family and I would greatly appreciate it.
Amy Padgett
Porcupine Mountains, Michigan

Giant Eastern Crane Fly

Dear Amy,
You have the distinction of being our 10,000th posting.  This lovely and gangling creature is a Giant Eastern Crane Fly, Pecidia albivitta.  We identified it on the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website pretty far down the Limoniinae page where this information is provided:  “This is one of the most conspicuous and beautiful crane flies in Pennsylvania.  It is common and widely distributed throughout the northeastern United States and Canada.  The adults are on the wing in June and again in September.  Crane flies of this group can be distinguished from all other adult crane flies by the dark brown triangle on the wings.  A dark costal margin, a broad seam along vien Cu, and a similar dark seam along the unusually oblique cord form this triangle.  The females reach the large size of 35 mm, while the males are slightly smaller.  Abdomen is whitish gray in color, the tergites with triangular or diamond-shaped darker gray patches that are bordered by rusty yellow.  The adults can be found in moist woods, boggy areas, cold springs, saturated springy hillsides, along streams and shaded tributaries where the aquatic carnivorous larvae develop.  Larvae of this species have creeping-welts on abdominal segments 4-7 and live in the edge of cold streams.“  BugGuide has many submissions of this species.

Ed. Note: We actually miscounted.  This is really our 9999th post.

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