Subject: Strange red lumps
Location: Styx Valley, Tasmania, Australia
October 23, 2014 4:21 am
Hi there,
I would like an ID on both the insect (a crane fly?) and the strange red lumps on its thorax. Are they mites? I found this specimen on the car after a drive through a forestry logging track. Its body (excluding the legs) was probably around 2cm long.
Thanks for the help.
Signature: Curious
Dear Curious,
You are correct that this is a Crane Fly, and we don’t know if we are going to be able to provide you with a more specific identification beyond the Infraorder Tipulomorpha. The red lumps do appear to be Mites, and we do have several images in our archives of Crane Flies with Mites. We found an example from UK on The Ranger’s Blog. We suspect the Mites are phoretic, but we are not certain.
