Wikipédia says that people in France mistakenly call these insects « cousins » — yes, "cousins" — that being a popular name given to mosquitoes. Interesting image, that — cousins as pests that suck the blood out of you. In this case, this is not a mosquito, and it won't bite or sting you. It's a fly — a crane fly in English, both in Britain and America, it seems. I guess we've all seen them often in our lives. In French, the crane fly is more correctly called une tipule (a member of the Tipulidae family of flies, from what I've read).
This one landed on our terrace door yesterday morning. I noticed it when I opened the curtains for Tasha so that she could watch the birds through the glass. Then I grabbed my camera. It seems to be a male because its abdomen is not pointed (if I understand the Wikipédia article correctly). The females have a pointed abdomen, the back end of which is their ovipositor. The crane fly larvae are pests, eating the roots of plants and sometimes the leaves.
Wikipédia also says that there are 4,000 species of crane flies in the world — 200 in France alone, and nearly 500 in all of Europe. Note that that's the number of species, not individuals. It's surprising we don't see them even more often.
My husband calls them moustiques.
ReplyDeleteGlad to learn what these things are. I never saw them before moving to France.
I'm sure we had crane flies in N.C. Walt says he remembers them in upstate N.Y. I can't remember about central Illinois, Washington DC, or California. Must have had crane flies in those places too.
DeleteI think those are the same thing that we see here, but I have always (mistakenly!) been told that they were female mosquitoes. Ha! Learn something new everyday, here, Ken :) Thanks for you research!
ReplyDeleteAren't these flies also called "daddy long legs"?
ReplyDeleteIn French it is also called mouche-faucheux, probably because they have long legs like the true faucheux.
I've always called them daddy long legs and seen them everywhere I've lived. They are cute.
DeleteThe faucheux (or faucheuse, faucheur) is an arachnid, and it's what I've always known as a daddy longlegs. But the Wikipedia article on daddy longlegs says it can be used as a name for Opiliones arachnids and Tipulidae flies.
DeleteI have been told that crane flies eat mosquitoes - true?
ReplyDeleteNot as far as I cant tell.
DeleteWe always called them mosquito eaters. Daddy Long Legs was a spider where I grew up. I wonder if crane flies do eat mosquitoes or mosquito larvae? That would be a service!
ReplyDeleteLike you, G., I always knew daddy long-legs as a spider, and we have those here too, in abundance. I've heard crane flies called mosquito hawks, but I haven't seen any evidence that they eat mosquitoes.
DeleteWe have loads of them here every summer. :) I don't mind them really. Crane flies and daddy longlegs appear to to be the same 'thing': https://www.britannica.com/animal/crane-fly
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Britannica article. Evelyn says she called crane flies daddy longlegs but I don't think we called them that when I was living in North Carolina. The Britannica notes that daddy longlegs for crane flies is not used as much in North America as in other English-speaking areas.
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