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Crane Fly

Family: Tipulidae

Description:

Please help me id this thing: I want to know whether to set it free or kill it. It looks like a mosquito, but it's huge! About 10-12cm in span, wingspan looks to be about 5cm (not that I'm getting too close!).

Habitat:

Cairns (the wet tropics, near the northern-most tip), Australia


No species ID suggestions

6 Comments

bayucca
bayucca a year ago

A crane fly would never attack you, compared to nasty mosquitos...

AschaRiess
AschaRiess a year ago

He's either a black crane fly or a spider crane fly, and completely harmless!

AschaRiess
AschaRiess a year ago

Thanks, bayucca. We ended up setting it free coz it was not trying to attack us, plus it looked distressed after it trapped itself inside the house.

bayucca
bayucca a year ago

Some kind of a crane fly with very long legs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

SatyenM
SatyenM a year ago

I'm not an expert on the I.D. I would set it free.

4870, Queensland, Australia

Lat: -16.88, Long: 145.72

Spotted on Apr 10, 2012
Submitted on Apr 10, 2012

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