100 More species #71: Tiger crane fly

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Tiger crane fly Nephrotoma ferruginea

As a light snow falls gently outside, we can revisit a warm day in May when I photographed these crane flies mating on a leaf. An expert at bugguide.net identified the flies to genus and another went ahead and identified the species. (That second link includes some very cool pictures, including some of this species of crane fly being preyed upon by smaller predators such as Phiddipus audax.) Tiger crane flies are large, common, and harmless animals that in New England occur in the spring and summer. They spend most of their lives as beneficial detritus-feeding larvae that live in, and contribute to, the soil. Despite tripping the switch in our brains that makes us think of mosquitoes, tiger crane flies are not closely related to them, and they do not behave like nor feed on mosquitoes.