- Crane Flies on Goldenrod shows these insects on Goldenrod Plants on August 11, 2021 in Juneau, Alaska.
- The following information is from our book Aquatic Insects in Alaska:
- Crane Flies are the largest family of flies (Tipulidae), with more than 15,000 aquatic and terrestrial species worldwide.
- The adults look like large Mosquitoes with extremely long legs.
- Adults are sometimes known as "mosquito hawks" and folk belief says they eat Mosquitoes. They don't. Because they only live a few days (just long enough to mate and lay eggs), adult Crane Flies don't feed at all.
- These plants had numerous Crane Flies on them and most were mating. The goldenrod plants were at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum in Juneau. They are the Nortern Goldenrod (Solidago multiradiata var. arctica). A common plant found in Southeastern Alaska west to Alaska Peninsula and Interior Alaska (Judy Hall, Native Plants of Southeast Alaska).
- Of interest is I looked at most of the other plants at the Arboretum and only saw the Crane Flies on the goldenrods.
- Here is an early report on Crane Flies in Alaska -- appears to be mostly the small ones /sites/default/files/Crane%20Flies%20in%20Alaska.pdf
- Look at http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:249726-1
- Why did crane flies evolve to have such long legs -- an interesting answer: https://www.quora.com/Why-did-crane-flies-evolve-to-have-long-legs