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Tipula paludosa
flying insect
suburban area, mixed vegetation
my friends and I used to (read: "over 50 years ago") call such creatures, that had an appearance reminiscent of a mosquito, but were about a couple of orders of magnitude bigger, "mosquito hawks"; this specimen was spotted on the wall of condominium complex; thanks to Karen Saxton for the ID
BugEric: Thanks for the additional information. The sex is apparently obvious from the image. Is the point at the end of the abdomen an ovipositor? As to species ID, if memory serves, the size of this one was ¾ inch to 1¼ inch from top to bottom of its "footprint," the head-to-trailing edge of abdomen length was approximately ½ to ¾ inch.
Holorusia hespera is really big, bigger than any other crane fly in the Pacific Northwest. Without a size notation, I can't totally rule out the European Crane Fly, but I'm betting it is the Giant. Yours is a female.
from the above: The two pest species, called European crane fly (Tipula paludosa) and common crane fly (Tipula oleraceae) have dozens of relatives that are great fish food and also recyclers
Spotted on Sep 13, 2011
Submitted on Nov 28, 2011
