Unknown Fly (?) in Ann Arbor, MI.
April 24, 2010
Hi Bug Identifiers!
I was kicking around in my yard today, taking some pictures, and I found this interesting fly. It was walking on the leaf litter, and, when I knelt to take some photos, it held very still until I was done. I’ve looked at the flies in your fly section, but I didn’t see anything that looked much like it.
Stephen
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Hi Stephen,
This is a Crane Fly, but unless they are really distinctive looking, we have great difficulty identifying Crane Flies to the species level. A great place to begin if an exact species is important for you, is the Crane Flies of Pennsylvania website of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Chen Young will respond to your identification requests.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks very much for the response. After I sent you the request for identification, I spent about two hours digging around bugguide and some other websites. It looks like it may be nephrotoma pedunculata.
Thanks again,
Stephen
Hi again Stephen,
We don’t really see the resemblance between your individual and the Nephrotoma pedunculata posted on Bugguide. We like Hexatoma spinosa as a better match. The Crane Flies of Pennsylvania indicates: “Hexatoma spinosa are about 16 (male) – 28 (female) mm in body size and the males are characterized by having antennae of about 28 mm in size and are approximately three times the length of the body. The males often form large mating swarm near the margins of streams.“ That means the photo of the living specimen on the site, which is the same photo on BugGuide, is of a male and your specimen would be a female. We are going to contact Chen Young for a confirmation.
Ed. Note: We received an “out of office” reply to our email to Chen Young, so a confirmation here will have to wait.
Ed. Note: Chen Young replies
April 30, 2010
Hi Daniel,
I think this is a Tipula (Lunatipula) dorsimacula. http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/cranefly/tipulinae.htm#Tipula_(Lunatipula)_dorsimacula
I am out of country now and can do much to confirm but with the dorsal color I am pretty sure it is T. dorsimacula.
Thanks,
Chen