Subject: Unindentified Flying Insect
Location: Belgrade, Serbia, Europe
May 9, 2013 2:28 pm
Hello,
I caught this insect a this evening, and can not find it on Google, so I’m wondering if you could help me. I never saw an insect like this, not even remotely similar.
Insect was caught on May 9th, weather has been unseasonably warm for 3 weeks, I live less than a mile from the river. Insect is little over 1 inch long (from head to the end of the body, without antenna).
I hope you can help me find out what species is this,
thank you in advance,
Janja
Signature: Janja Bobic
Hi Janja,
This is a Crane Fly in the family Tipulidae, and judging by those beautiful plumose antennae, this is a male. Crane Flies are true flies with a single pair of wings. We will contact Dr. Chen Young of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to see if he can identify the species. It looks similar to the Ctenophora species on Diptera Info.
Thank you so much for your answer, I really appreciate it. This beautiful insect sparked a huge interest in my class today.
sincerely,
Janja Bobic
Hi Janja,
We got an “out of office” reply from Dr Chen Young, but we might get an update from him in a few weeks.