Crane Flies Mating and Laying.

[glsammy]

You know the boring old Crane fly? Well today they surprised me!
I witnessed an amazing mating ritual which I tried to capture shots of.
There was one female with up to four males all trying to mate with her at the same time!
I first notice what appeared to be a ball of frantic action moving around a small pond.
Please click on the images to see them large.
Here's the shots I got:





On this one one of the males has succeeded.



What was also very obvious was the large size difference between the males and female.



Once the males had left her, she laid on her back and started to lay her eggs.