8th December
I know, I know. A day late. So this will the first of two posts written today. The subject of this post came to me when I saw a dead example caught up in the roller-blind in my bathroom, it looked a little silly and decidedly flat as an adornment to the fittings. So obviously this post will be about an insect. Would be rather weird if it were to be about a red deer given that intro!
Tipula paludosa Meigen, 1830
This is a crane fly, also popularly known as a daddy-long-legs. It doesn’t really have an English name in the UK, but is known as the European Crane Fly in North America where it is an introduced pest species. Like many crane flies it has enourmous legs and rather disproportionally small wings. This particular species is incredibly common, and is more noticable in the autumn when they seem to find ways of getting indoors. I think this is more luck than judgement on their part as they seem to be incredibly weak fliers; they always look like they lack direction. Bizarrely for such a poorly designed animal (crane flies must be a very good argument against holy intelligent design) many people are scared of them. I suppose to some folk having an animal fly at you, no matter how much it bimbles aimlessly, and having the same animal getting is legs entangled in your hair – legs that easily fall off, must be a greater source of fear than the entire back catalogue of Stephen King.
Advent species so far:
- 1st: Goosander Mergus merganser
- 2nd: December Moth Poecilocampa populi
- 3rd: Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum
- 4th Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
- 5th Cape Sparrow Passer melanurus
- 6th Loricera pilicornis
- 7th Great Tit Parus major
- 8th Tipula paludosa
A Species a Day 