NEMATOCERA, Tipulomorpha, Tipuloidea

Number of British species: 4

Size: M

Difficulty: 1

Scheme Covered by the Cranefly recording scheme

Large (11-16 mm), yellowish to pale brownish Nematocera with long, slender antennae, wings, legs and abdomen. Head with a short rostrum; nasus absent; antenna with 16 segments; ocelli absent. Upper side of the thorax with 3 wide dark stripes, or thorax mainly grey (Triogma); transverse suture distinct in median third of thorax, fading out laterally. Wing with 2 anal veins. Abdomen in male with bipartite (Diogma) or tripartite distiphallus, in female with broad and short cercus.

Larvae phytophagous and, Cylindrotoma excepted, living on terrestrial, semi-aquatic and aquatic mosses. The larvae of Cylindrotoma living on various herbs (Caltha, Viola, Stellaria, Anemone, etc.) in moist woodland habitats with a life mode similar to that of caterpillars. The adults predominantly in marshy areas and moist woodland, resting on the vegetation or slowly flying about near the sites where the larvae are found.

Coe et al. (1950), Edwards (1938a), Stubbs (Unpublished)