British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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Daddy-long-legs, Crane-flies (the larvae being ‘Leatherjackets’).
Adult insects. Medium-sized to large (of wing-span (6-)10–65 mm); slender-bodied; stilt-legged. The legs readily shed. Antennae 10–39 segmented; ‘simple’. Ocelli absent. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; drooping (long, with the terminal segment much longer than the preceding one). Vibrissae absent. Thorax with the dorsal suture continuous across the middle. The dorsal suture deeply V-shaped. Wing veins reaching the margin 9. Wings with a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa extending around the entire wing. Sub-costa apparent; joining vein 1 well short of the costa. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Vein 7 present; reaching the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned.
Larvae and pupae. Larvae aquatic (or semi-aquatic), or terrestrial (in wet soil or decomposing vegetable matter); phytophagous and saprophagous (Leatherjackets being notoriously destructive pests); hemicephalic to acephalic. Pupa without a puparium (the last larval skin remaining attached to the posterior abdominal segments).
Comments. The wings narrow, with veins of roughly equal strength.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Tipulomorpha; Superfamily Tipuloidea.
British representation: Genera 8; 87 species.
Illustrations: • Ctenophora, Dictenidia, Dolichopeza, Nephtotoma, Tanyptera, Tipula (from Walker). • Dolichopeza albipes (Original genus description. Silver-footed Long-legs: B. Ent. 062). • Dolichopeza albipes (dissections: B. Ent. 062). • Dolichopeza albipes (B. Ent. 062, legend+text). • Dolichopeza albipes (B. Ent. 062, text cont.). • Ctenophora ornata (Ornamented Gnat: B. Ent. 005). • Tipula flavolineata (Long-horned Long-legs: B. Ent. 493).
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers 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.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Diptera. Version: 9th June 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
