Friday: 6 June 2008
This happy couple:
I’m guessing they’re craneflies (or related), and are different from the ones I’ve been mostly seeing.
I’ve been able to recognize at least a half-dozen different cranefly species this spring, although I haven’t been able to identify most of them. I’ve mentioned already that they’ve been extremely abundant this year, but that’s just one of the things that I find fascinating about them. They’re also just extremely weird-looking. And I imagine, particularly when so abundant, that they’re a huge foodsource for arthropod and avian predators. The larvae, too, which burrow in the ground, must be attractive to a lot of insectivores: armadillos, yes, well ok, them too.
Craneflies are flies, of course, in the order Diptera. They’re members of a nontaxonomic group (the “Nematocera”) which includes at least five infraorders ( Bugguide. Note that Bugguide is limited to the US and Canada.) One is the phantom craneflies, one is the hanging flies, one even includes the mosquitos. I’ve had people tell me that craneflies are just giant mosquitos (not entirely a bad way of looking at it) and that they’ll bite you (not true).
The positioning of this pair deep within the foliage meant I couldn’t get a good top view, and it turns out that that means I missed recording some important diagnostic features. I couldn’t tell whether there were three ocelli, for instance, and that’s fairly important knowledge. The wing venation is also important, as is the antennal shape and emergence position.
One thing that doesn’t seem to be important is that these have their wings folded over their backs at rest, instead of spread out. Of the five families of cranefly or cranefly-like types listed in Bugguide within the infraorder Tipulamorpha, there look to be representative genera in each one with folded wings, so it’s not a great character.
At least I know I need a good dorsal and head view next time!
And, oh yes, the high today predicted to 97 degF. Same for tomorrow and Sunday. Yesterday it was 98 degF, a high of 94 was predicted. No rain until Mon or Tue at the earliest, and none in the last two weeks. Grim.
I’m guessing they’re craneflies (or related), and are different from the ones I’ve been mostly seeing.
I’ve been able to recognize at least a half-dozen different cranefly species this spring, although I haven’t been able to identify most of them. I’ve mentioned already that they’ve been extremely abundant this year, but that’s just one of the things that I find fascinating about them. They’re also just extremely weird-looking. And I imagine, particularly when so abundant, that they’re a huge foodsource for arthropod and avian predators. The larvae, too, which burrow in the ground, must be attractive to a lot of insectivores: armadillos, yes, well ok, them too.
Craneflies are flies, of course, in the order Diptera. They’re members of a nontaxonomic group (the “Nematocera”) which includes at least five infraorders ( Bugguide. Note that Bugguide is limited to the US and Canada.) One is the phantom craneflies, one is the hanging flies, one even includes the mosquitos. I’ve had people tell me that craneflies are just giant mosquitos (not entirely a bad way of looking at it) and that they’ll bite you (not true).
The positioning of this pair deep within the foliage meant I couldn’t get a good top view, and it turns out that that means I missed recording some important diagnostic features. I couldn’t tell whether there were three ocelli, for instance, and that’s fairly important knowledge. The wing venation is also important, as is the antennal shape and emergence position.
One thing that doesn’t seem to be important is that these have their wings folded over their backs at rest, instead of spread out. Of the five families of cranefly or cranefly-like types listed in Bugguide within the infraorder Tipulamorpha, there look to be representative genera in each one with folded wings, so it’s not a great character.
At least I know I need a good dorsal and head view next time!
And, oh yes, the high today predicted to 97 degF. Same for tomorrow and Sunday. Yesterday it was 98 degF, a high of 94 was predicted. No rain until Mon or Tue at the earliest, and none in the last two weeks. Grim.
