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flytire

any guesses?

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You see the aquatic type here in OR a fair amount. They're smaller than the ones that grow in your lawn, but they hatch and gather in large groups on rocks right at the waterline along many rivers here. I've only occasionally found trout selectively eating them, but it happens often enough that I keep a cream colored dry or two in about size 12 in my box just in case a find a fish next to the bank eating them.

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We have them all over the place around here, SE PA. A gray or cream mop fly makes a good imitation for the larvae. Easy to tie.

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Its an Adult Tipulidae...a Cranefly....it is related to midges and Mosquitos, but somewhat less aquatic. Many of them live in damp soil as larvae, and emerge in the evenings from May thru October on the PNW Coast..in PITA numbers.

 

BTW y'all....1) a Mosquito Hawk is a colloquial Name for a DRAGONFLY, most species of which will form a basket out of their six legs and catch and eat skeeters in flight.

And 2) a Daddy Long Legs is properly a land-locked crustacean, sometimes known as a Harvestman, Order Opiliones. Classed as an Arachnid, like a spider, these have eight legs and multiple eyes, but are mostly omnivores, and are non-venomous. Opilionids bear a slight resemblance to spiders, but differ drastically in body-plan; they have no waistline separation between thorax and abdomen, as a true spider does. They look more like a King Crab than a spider.

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Its an Adult Tipulidae...a Cranefly....it is related to midges and Mosquitos, but somewhat less aquatic. Many of them live in damp soil as larvae, and emerge in the evenings from May thru October on the PNW Coast..in PITA numbers.

 

BTW y'all....1) a Mosquito Hawk is a colloquial Name for a DRAGONFLY, most species of which will form a basket out of their six legs and catch and eat skeeters in flight.

And 2) a Daddy Long Legs is properly a land-locked crustacean, sometimes known as a Harvestman, Order Opiliones. Classed as an Arachnid, like a spider, these have eight legs and multiple eyes, but are mostly omnivores, and are non-venomous. Opilionids bear a slight resemblance to spiders, but differ drastically in body-plan; they have no waistline separation between thorax and abdomen, as a true spider does. They look more like a King Crab than a spider.

That's the problem with regional common names for critters.

 

Where i came from, "Mosquito Hawk" always meant a crane. In fact, it seems to mean crane fly everywhere I've ever lived. I've never heard of a dragon fly referred to by that name, although it may in some places.

 

"Daddy Long Legs" is the British term for a crane fly (it never means harvestman). It's been in use for hundred of years. It's also so used in some places in the US as well, although where I grew up it meant Harvestman (which are arachnids, not crustaceans.)

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_longlegs

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

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Where I grew up, I heard crane flies called devils darning needles which, apparently, is also a common name for dragon flies. I used to be in the reptile and arachnid keeping hobby. Learned to despise common names quickly. They do provide an interesting look into local culture, though.

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It's a gallinipper, daddylonglegs is a spider, not to be confused with a soft hackle or a foam bug.

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It's a gallinipper ...

Nope.

"The mosquito has been referred to as the “gallinipper” or “shaggy-legged gallinipper” due to its tendency for aggressive behavior."

 

The Crane Fly, or Mosquito Dragon, although related to mosquitoes, isn't a mosquito.

 

On a side note ... I have an odd tendency to get "hung up" on a word once it's been used too many times. Has anyone else started to, in your head at least, pronounce it "mos-kweet-o"? Or "mos-kwit-o"? Like a bad song I can't get out of my head !!! mad.gif

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They been gallinippers in the Ozarks since the 1800s- that's what Grandpa called em.

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