Crane Fly ID

[iainL]

Crane Fly of some description - is it easy to tell down to species from this photo?



Cheers

Iain

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Iain,

It's a Limoniidae member most likely, but I wouldn't like to go further.

Take care,

Jason

[peterbolson]

I think it's Tipula varipennis. I'm seeing a lot of them at the moment.
Regards
Peter

[iainL]

Thanks for the thoughts on this thing.

Just out of curiousity, and in the absence of a key, do all these Tipulids require dissection to identify to species or are there any handy field characteristics?

Cheers

Iain

[peterbolson]

Hi Iain
Most of the common ones can be identified by wing venation plus a few other features such as the stripes on the back of the thorax. Others do need genital examination.
Regards
Peter

[oxycera]

A few are distinctive enough to be recognised in the field, many are not.

[peterbolson]

Hi John
You can do a lot from photographs though. I've managed 16 different species this year so far.
Peter

[oxycera]

Hi Peter,

I agree, good photographs (especially yours) can go a long way to providing good clues. I think I'm coming from the position that, yes, maybe a wider spectrum of species can be recognised as long as you've been through the pain of trying to identify them properly in the first place.

[iainL]

I know the pain of keys - I used to look at beetles using Joy a goodly number of years ago. And I agree, this method does help to identify some key features which might be used to help separate some species in the field.

Anyways, thanks for the above info.

Cheers

Iain

[oxycera]

Using Joy was always a pain! It sometimes came in useful however.