This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have the spindly, sprawling sprites of spring, the Crane Flies of genus Tipula.
Crane Flies are true flies and in the same lineage as Mosquitos, Midges, and Gnats. They belong to family Tipulidae and today I’m focusing primarily on the members of genus Tipula. Like all Flies, they’re a pain to identify to species, so we’ll just be looking at them generically. Crane Flies are found throughout the United States. They are large, lanky flies with a long abdomen, slender legs, and narrow wings. They can be found across a wide range of habitats, particularly forested areas, pastures, and residential areas with moist soils. Crane Flies are sometimes colloquially called “Skeeter-eaters” but don’t let that nickname fool you, they don’t eat mosquitoes. In fact, most adult Crane Flies don’t eat at all and those that do, drink nectar. They’re completely harmless but can be annoying when they slip into your house through an opened door and incessantly ram themselves against a lampshade while driving your cat mad. The adult Crane Fly only lives a few days. They instead spend much of their life as a subterranean larva and then emerge as adults only to reproduce. Adult Crane Flies fly throughout the year but notably are some of the earliest flying insects to emerge, sometimes cropping up in number during warm spells amid winter. The larvae of Crane Flies are detritivores who feed on the decaying organic matter on and within the surface of the soil and on the edges of wetlands. As detritivores and herbivores, they form an important link in the food web and in nutrient cycling. Crane Fly larvae are gray, leathery, and can grow over an inch long. Notably, the larvae of Tipula Crane Flies can become an agricultural and residential pest under certain conditions. The larvae live in lawns and pastures and will feed on the live roots of plants when decaying plant matter is scarce and they will even emerge from the ground at night to feed on the leaves and buds of turf grasses, clovers, and the like. Their midnight munching leaves behind burnt-looking patches of grass in lawns. However, Crane Fly larvae present more of an intermittent, seasonal issue when conditions are right, rather than a chronic pest.
