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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera |
~Tipulidae
Daddy-long-legs, Crane-flies.
Adult insects. Slender-bodied; stilt-legged. The legs readily shed (?). Antennae 8–16 segmented; ‘simple’. Ocelli absent. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping (short, with the terminal segment not noticeably longer than the preceding one). Thorax with the dorsal suture continuous across the middle. The dorsal suture deeply V-shaped. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa not extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; reaching the costa independently of vein 1, or distally forked, to join both the costa and vein 1. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Wing vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Wing vein 7 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned.
Larvae and pupae. The larvae aquatic, or terrestrial; phytophagous, or saprophagous, or mycophagous, or predatory; eucephalic. The pupae without a puparium.
Comments. Gnat-like insects, which dance in swarms in damp situations around sunset and sunrise. Most rest with the wings folded one over the other along the body, by contrast with most tipulines.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Tipulomorpha; Superfamily Tipuloidea.
British representation. 212 species in Britain. Genera about 49; Achyrolimonia, Antocha, Arctoconopa, Atypophthalmus, Austrolimnophila, Cheilotrichia, Crypteria, Dactylolabis, Dicranomyia, Dicranopytcha, Discobola, Ellipteroides, Eloeophila, Epiphragma, Erioconopa, Erioptera, Euphilidorea, Geranomyia, Gnophomyia, Gonempeda, Gonomyia, Helius, Hexatoma, Hoplolabis, Idiocera, Idioptera, Ilisia, Limnophila, Limonia, Lipsothrix, Metalimnobia, Molophilus, Neilimnomyia, Neolimnophila, Neolimonia, Orimarga, Ormosia, Paradelphomyia, Phylidorea, Pilaria, Pseudolimnophila, Rhabdomastix, Rhipidia, Rhypholophus, Scleroprocta, Symplecta, Tasiocera, Thaumastoptera, Trimicra.
Illustrations. • Erioptera, Hexatoma, Ormosia (From Walker). Hexatoma bicolor, male. 9a and 9b, Hexatoma bicolor, antenna of female (9a) and last joint of tarsus (9b: all of them being emarginate beneath). 10a and 10b, Erioptera flavata, wing and antenna, respectively. 11, Ormosia lineata, male. From Walker (1856, Plates XXVI and XXX), with approximate lengths of the insects added. • Dicranomyia, Euphylidorea, Geranomyia, Helius, Neolimnomyia, Paradelphomyia, Philidorea, Rhipidia, Simplecta (from Walker). 1, Simplecta punctipennis, male. 2, Dicranomyia stigmatica, with details of oblique side view of labium (2a), the palps (2b), and the labium (2c). 2d, Euphylidorea dispar, antenna. 2e, Phylidorea ferruginea, wing. 2f, Neolimnomyia nemoralis, wing. 2g, Idiocera sexguttata, wing. 3, Paradelphomyia senilis, female. 5, Helius longirostris, female, with detail of base of head from the side (5a). 6a-6c, Geranomyia unicolor: details of head (6a), horny labrum and tongue (6b), and wing (6c). 7a and 7b, Rhipidia maculata, antenna and wing. From Walker (1856, Plate XXVII), with approximate insect lengths added. • Epiphragma ocellare (Ocellated Gnat: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (detail: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (dissections: B. Ent. 050). • Epiphragma ocellare (B. Ent. 050, legend+text. • Epiphragma ocellare (B. Ent. 050, text cont.. • Geranomyia unicolor (Long-lipped Crane-fly: B. Ent. 573). • Geranomyia unicolor: B. Ent. 573, legend+text. • Geranomyia unicolor: B. Ent. 573, text cont.. • Molophilus ater (Original generic description. Short-winged Mountain Gnat: B. Ent. 444). • Molophilus ater (B. Ent. 444, legend+text). The original description of Molophilus Curtis is here accompanied by that of M. brevipennis Curtis, which is now treated as a synonym of M. ater (Meigen). • Molophilus ater (B. Ent. 444, text cont.). • Molophilus obscurus (Short-legged Crane-fly: B. Ent.557). • Molophilus obscurus: B. Ent. 557, legend+text. • Molophilus obscurus: B. Ent. 557, text cont.. • Hexatoma fuscipennis Curtis: B. Ent. 589. • Hexatoma fuscipennis Curtis: B. Ent. 589, legend+text. • Hexatoma fuscipennis Curtis: B. Ent. 589, text cont.. • Metalimnobia bifasciata, male and female: as Limnobia xanthoptera, Stephens 1846. • Trimicra pilipes: as Symplectra marginata, Stephens 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Diptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
