Unidentified flying insect
I found 2 Insects looking like this in my appartment:
Anyone knows what it is, its about 10cm large from leg tip to tip if it stretches out and capable of flight, seems not to have any inteligence to speak of. I could catch it and throw it out of my appartment but iam affraid its too cold outside?
Anyone knows what it eats? How long it lives?
It looks like a crane fly to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly
Comment by Bobby — 2011-01-12 @ 05:25
Yep, looks exactly like a crane fly to me. We call them daddy long legs in England.
Comment by Robert Swain — 2011-01-12 @ 09:15
Ok, thanks for identifying them, ive seen insects like that before but wasnt sure what they where called. I also tried to feed them with pineapple jam, but it seemed they had no interrest in that. And as wiki is hinting toward a short lifespan and we have 8°C and a bit of sun here i let them out.
Comment by Michael — 2011-01-12 @ 14:13
call em hästfluga in sweden (horse fly)
Comment by martin — 2011-01-12 @ 14:40
or rather hästmygga.. ;)
Comment by martin — 2011-01-12 @ 14:41
I think it’s a giant Aedes Aegypti:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aedes_aegypti
Really, 10cm?!
Comment by NiX — 2011-01-12 @ 17:50
Yeah that’s your classic daddy long legs their good for reading mailing list patches, and with a little training You May Even Get them To Provide a Patch or two, but you will not see any patches from them on a daily basis as their to lazy most times of the year :D
Comment by daddy — 2011-01-13 @ 06:59
In france we just call it “a Cousin”
Comment by Saacha — 2011-01-13 @ 11:11
Daddy Long Legs refers to a spider in Aus.
Comment by Peter — 2011-01-14 @ 08:46
My wife calls these “mosquito eaters” and we see them frequently here in Virginia. As I have never seen them eat a mosquito, I googled for mosquito eater and found this page:
http://www.allmosquitos.com/mosquitos/mosquito-eater.html
and these images:
http://www.google.com/images?q=mosquito+eater&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=ax4xTaLfGtPpgQeL9YDoCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CEYQsAQwAQ&biw=1081&bih=780
Comment by Remus — 2011-01-15 @ 05:16
This often flies into the house/appartment here, too (czech republic). It usually likes to fly as if it was drunk, you never know when it crashes into your face :)
I think it is related to mosquittoes, but this one is herbivore, so it won’t be biting you.
Comment by Anonymous — 2011-01-21 @ 04:19
I don’t know how is it called in english. It’s an insect that in “larva” stage lives in the grass. It feeds grass savia and in adult form only searchs copula. They like cold and humidity. Complety inoffensive.
Comment by Eduardo — 2011-03-06 @ 18:42
In Russia it’s called ‘карамора’ (karamora, pronounced with primary stress on the second syllable), see:
http://www.photoforum.ru/photo/608962/index.ru.html
They are said to be absolutely harmless.
Hey, thanks for the great blog!
Comment by Someone — 2011-06-21 @ 10:51
Iy” ‘ve got a zillion of these flying insects in my yard. Their very annoying when your trying to cut your lawn. Any idea on how to get rid of these pests.
Comment by Al — 2011-09-09 @ 13:07
daddy long legs in the UK ;)
Comment by Brooke — 2012-01-05 @ 13:27
I live in the southwest desert of US, Tucson, Arizona. We call them Crane Flies or Daddy Long Legs Flies. Right now in late Feb. and early March we are seeing thousands of them. No grass anywhere around. Just desert vegetation. They annoy the daylights out of us. We spray them with flying insect spray. Eventually they will disappear. In the 17 years we’ve lived here, this is only the 2nd infestation of them here. Had them here 2 or 3 years ago. Never saw any larvae.
Comment by Marlene Fox — 2012-03-08 @ 00:43
Its a crane fly.
Comment by Bethany — 2012-04-08 @ 23:52
It’s a crane fly.
They eat mosquitos.
In the U.S. “Daddy-Long-Leg” is a type of spider.
Comment by Ed St. Louis — 2013-10-28 @ 21:15
Duckt es sich, wenn das Licht angeht?
Comment by Siana — 2014-08-30 @ 18:30