On the Wild Side with Professor Ian Rotherham: Giant craneflies

Our relationship with these long-legged, sometimes quite large flies has not always been easy as people seem quite nervous around them. Apparently, some folk used to worry about them dropping off bedroom ceilings and into the open mouths of sleepers lying below!

Even worse, there were concerns that these dramatic insects were actually poisonous, which of course they are not. They were also reputed to have poisonous fangs even though the adults can’t bite and often never feed.

With their long legs, long, thin bodies, and narrow, long wings, the overall appearance is rather dysfunctional, and in flight they tend to have an inelegant almost helicopter-like appearance. It is believed that their long legs act rather like the whiskers of a cat and help them avoid collisions with any objects, and also to counter-balance the long body and stabilise their flight.

In Britain these distinctive insects have various nick-names such as ‘arry-long-legs’, ‘Harry-long-legs’, ‘granny nobble-knee’, ‘jinnyspinner’, ‘meggie-nettles’, ‘speederlegs’, ‘tom-taylor’, and many others. The biggest of the British craneflies, with a leg span of ten centimetres, is Tipula maxima, which is a species that has beautifully patterned wings and is found in wet, marshy moorland, pastures, and damp woodland.

Most craneflies found in gardens have their larvae (leatherjackets) in grassy lawns and such places. However, in contrast with the garden craneflies, the larvae of Tipula maxima, along with some other woodland-dwelling are semi-aquatic. Globally there are even bigger craneflies, and the largest specimen ever found was the species Holorusia mikado, which had a leg span of 25.8 cm (or 10.16 in), with its body measuring 4.83 cm, and a wingspan 11.15 cm. This was recorded at Chengdu, Sichuan, China, on the 14th of June 2018, with specimen currently on display at the Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Unfortunately, these harmless insects have been subject to childhood cruelty in times past when children would pull off the legs one-by-one, like petals from a daisy. This was done whilst reciting a doctored version of the rhyme, ‘Goosey, goosey, gander’. Hopefully this cruel former tradition has passed. 

Professor Ian D. Rotherham, researcher, writer & broadcaster on wildlife & environmental issues, is contactable on [email protected]; follow Ian’s blog (https://ianswalkonthewildside.wordpress.com/) and Twitter @IanThewildside