# Common Crane Flies (*Tipula*)

Common Crane Flies are long-legged insects that look a bit like giant mosquitoes! They are harmless and often found in gardens and fields, dancing in the air during warm days.

- **Category:** [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/insect)
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Danger:** 1/5 · Very low
- **Habitat:** Grasslands

![Common Crane Flies](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/%28MHNT%29_Tipula_paludosa_on_Iris_leave.jpg&width=800)

Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%28MHNT%29_Tipula_paludosa_on_Iris_leave.jpg)

## Appearance

The Common Crane Fly has a slender, greyish-brown body with incredibly long, delicate legs. Its transparent, often iridescent wings are noticeably veined, extending past its body. It is often mistaken for a giant mosquito, but lacks a biting proboscis.

## Taxonomy

- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Arthropoda
- **Class:** Insecta
- **Order:** Diptera
- **Family:** Tipulidae
- **Genus:** Tipula

## Crane fly, up close

Crane flies of the genus Tipula are the long-legged, slow-flying insects that drift over lawns and fields in late summer, often called daddy-long-legs in Britain. They are true flies, with one pair of wings and a pair of tiny balancing knobs, and they cannot bite or sting. Their grey-brown larvae, called leatherjackets, live in the soil, eat grass roots and are dug out and eaten by rooks and starlings.

Also called: Daddy-long-legs (UK and Ireland), Leatherjacket (the larva), European crane fly (Tipula paludosa), Marsh crane fly (Tipula oleracea), Cranefly.

Legs that let go, two wings plus two tiny balancers, and a baby that lives in your lawn. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself.

### Special abilities

- **Leg Drop** (6 → 5 legs after a lucky escape; still debated): Crane fly legs come away very easily. A crane fly caught by one leg can leave it behind and escape. [1][2][3][12]
  - Extension entomologists describe crane fly legs as breaking off easily, and scientists call them “deciduous”, like leaves that fall.
  - Dropping a body part to escape is called autotomy. True autotomy happens at a built-in breaking point, and has been described in over 200 kinds of invertebrates.
  - Snow flies, wingless relatives of crane flies, drop a leg when it starts to freeze, which stops the ice spreading into the body.
  - Nobody has measured how often garden crane flies escape this way, or exactly how controlled the break is, so we mark this one as still debated.
- **Built-in Balancers** (2 halteres (balancing knobs)): Instead of a second pair of wings, a crane fly has two tiny drumstick-shaped halteres that sense turning and help it stay steady. [5][6][4]
  - Halteres are reduced back wings. In flight they beat along with the wings and sense how the body is rotating, a bit like a built-in gyroscope.
  - Every fly with wings needs its halteres to control flight.
  - Crane flies have large halteres that wobble even when they are standing. In a 2026 study, crane flies whose halteres had been removed were worse at keeping their balance when nudged.
- **Slow Flapper** (≈70 wingbeats a second): Crane flies have the slowest wingbeats measured in a big study of flies, so they wobble along rather than dart. [8][4]
  - Scientists filmed 46 kinds of fly with high-speed cameras. Crane flies beat their wings about 70 times a second, about a third of the typical fly’s 236.
  - Mosquitoes and midges were the opposite extreme, at about 714 beats a second. That fast whine is a sound crane flies do not make.
  - Their long, narrow wings need little power, but give a slow, weak, wavering flight that is easy to spot at dusk.
  - Wingbeats per second: Crane flies ≈70; Typical fly ≈236; Mosquitoes and midges ≈714
- **Lawn Egg Drop** (200–300 eggs per female (reported)): Within a day of emerging, a female pushes her eggs into the grass and soil surface with the pointed tip of her abdomen. [11][10][13]
  - European crane flies mate and lay eggs in grass within 24 hours of coming out of the ground.
  - Each female can reportedly lay about 200–300 tiny black eggs, each about 1 mm long.
  - The eggs hatch a few weeks later. In a dry autumn many eggs dry out and fail, so lots of adult crane flies does not always mean lots of leatherjackets next year.
- **Leatherjacket Life** (30 mm longest leatherjackets): A crane fly spends most of its life as a leatherjacket: a legless, grey-brown larva with tough skin that lives in the soil and eats roots. [13][11]
  - Leatherjackets grow up to about 30 mm long. They have no legs and no obvious head.
  - By day they stay just under the surface. On damp, mild nights they come up to nibble the stems and leaves of plants.
  - Lots of leatherjackets can leave yellow-brown dead patches in a lawn. Crows, magpies, rooks and starlings dig them out, leaving small round beak holes in the turf.
- **Autumn Pop-Up** (Aug–Oct when adults emerge): In late summer the pupa wriggles up to the surface of the lawn, and the adult crane fly climbs out of its pupal skin. [11][13][9][2]
  - European crane flies emerge from lawns, pastures and other grassy places from late August into October.
  - The pupa does the hard work: it wriggles up through the soil before the adult breaks out.
  - The adult lives only a few days to about two weeks, just long enough to mate and lay eggs.
  - A European crane fly’s year (≈1 year (one generation)): Adult: a few days to about 2 weeks
- **Evening Swarms** (2 flying seasons (marsh crane fly); still debated): Marsh crane flies form small swarms in the evening, flying low over meadows and fields. [14][15]
  - The marsh crane fly has two generations a year: one flies from April to June, the other from August to October.
  - Its evening swarms fly close to the ground. Scientists think they help males and females find each other, but this is not well studied.
  - In a warm laboratory, marsh crane flies can fit in five to six generations a year.

### Body parts

- **Legs** (6 very long, very fragile legs) [1][2][3]
  - Six stilt-like legs, much longer than the body. They break off very easily.
  - Losing a leg can be a way out: a crane fly grabbed by one leg can leave it behind and fly off.
  - Because the legs come away so easily, never pick a crane fly up by its legs. Just watch it, or let it walk onto a sheet of paper and carry it outside.
- **Halteres** (2 tiny balancers instead of back wings) [4][5][6]
  - Just behind the wings sit two little knobbed stalks called halteres. They are what is left of a second pair of wings.
  - Halteres are sense organs. They tell the fly how its body is turning, and every fly needs them to steer in the air.
  - Crane flies have unusually large halteres, and they wobble them even while standing still to help keep their balance.
- **Wings** (≈70 wingbeats a second) [4][7][8]
  - One pair of long, narrow, clear wings. At rest they are often held out at an angle of about 45° from the body.
  - Each wing of a European crane fly is about 13–23 mm long.
  - Crane flies flap slowly for flies, about 70 times a second. Most flies manage over 200 and mosquitoes about 700, which is why crane flies drift and wobble rather than zip.
- **Head and snout** (0 biting mouthparts) [4][9][2]
  - The head ends in a short snout (the rostrum) with soft mouthparts at the tip. There is no needle-like piercing tube like a mosquito’s.
  - Crane flies cannot bite people or pets.
  - Most adult crane flies eat little or nothing. Some species are known to sip nectar or water.
- **Antennae** (14 antenna segments (European crane fly)) [10]
  - Two thin antennae stick out from the front of the head.
  - In the European crane fly both males and females have 14 segments in each antenna.
- **Thorax** (V shaped groove on the back) [9][4]
  - The thorax is the middle part of the body, where the legs, wings and halteres are attached.
  - A V-shaped groove across the top of the thorax is one of the best ways to tell a crane fly from other long-legged flies.
  - The wing veins have no scales, unlike a mosquito’s.
- **Abdomen** (≈25 mm body length, without the legs) [11][4][9]
  - The long abdomen makes up most of the body. The whole body of a European crane fly is about 25 mm long, not counting the legs.
  - Females have a thick abdomen ending in a sharp-looking point. It is a harmless egg-laying tip, not a sting.
  - Males have a blunt, club-ended abdomen, so you can tell the sexes apart at a glance.
- **Eggs** (200–300 eggs per female (reported)) [2][10][11]
  - A female crane fly usually comes out of her pupa already carrying ripe eggs.
  - A European crane fly female can reportedly lay about 200–300 eggs. They are shiny black and about 1 mm long.
  - She mates and starts pushing her eggs into the grass and soil within a day of emerging.

### Stats

| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Body length | ≈25 mm | European crane fly, not counting the legs [11][9] |
| Wing length | 13–23 mm | European crane fly; marsh crane fly 18–28 mm [7] |
| Wingbeats | ≈70 a second | crane flies as a group; mosquitoes and midges ≈714; About 10 times slower than a mosquito [8] |
| Eggs | 200–300 | per European crane fly female (reported) [10] |
| Egg-laying starts | within 24 h | of the female emerging [11] |
| Adult life | days to 2 weeks | about 10–15 days at most [9][2] |
| Time as a larva | ≈10–11 months | European crane fly: hatches in autumn, pupates the next August [11][13] |
| Leatherjacket length | up to 30 mm | longer than the adult’s body [13][11] |
| Leatherjacket crowd | ≈1,200 per m² | 110 per square foot in a 1966 outbreak in British Columbia [11] |
| Crane fly species | 15,768 | worldwide in four families; over 2,000 in the genus Tipula [17][10] |

### Photos

- [Female European crane fly (Tipula paludosa), Germany](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tipula_paludosa7.jpg) (photo: Holger Gröschl, CC BY-SA 2.0 de)
- [Marsh crane fly (Tipula oleracea), Warwickshire, England](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crane_fly_(Tipula_oleracea).jpg) (photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- [Male marsh crane fly, Ontario, Canada](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marsh_Crane_Fly_Tipula_oleracea_male_9548.jpg) (photo: ImagePerson, CC BY 4.0)
- [Head and snout of a marsh crane fly, Oxfordshire](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crane_fly_(tipula_oleracea)_head.jpg) (photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [European crane fly at rest](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiesenschnake_-_Tipula_paludosa_(29286478941).jpg) (photo: Rolf Dietrich Brecher, CC BY-SA 2.0)
- [Wing veins of a European crane fly](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tipula_paludosa_-_European_crane_fly_(7076589381).jpg) (photo: jacilluch, CC BY-SA 2.0)
- [Female marsh crane fly at a light, Denmark](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tipula_oleracea_(36405800902).jpg) (photo: Donald Hobern, CC BY 2.0)
- [A Tipula larva (a water-living species, not a lawn leatherjacket)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unidentified_tipula_larva.jpg) (photo: Takimata, CC BY-SA 3.0)

### Questions

- **Do crane flies bite or sting?** No. Crane flies have no piercing mouthparts and no sting. The pointed tip on a female’s abdomen is only for laying eggs. [9][4][1]
- **Are crane flies poisonous or venomous?** No. Crane flies have no venom. The story that “daddy-long-legs are the most venomous animal but cannot bite” is a myth, and it mixes up crane flies with harvestmen and cellar spiders. [18][9]
- **Do crane flies eat mosquitoes?** No. Adult crane flies eat little or nothing, and some sip nectar or water. Only the water-living larvae of some crane fly species are known to eat mosquito larvae. [2][19]
- **Why are there so many crane flies in September?** European crane flies come out of lawns and fields together from late August to October, mate and lay eggs within a day, then die within days to about two weeks. [11][13][9]
- **How long do crane flies live?** As adults, only a few days to about two weeks. Including the egg, larva and pupa stages, a European crane fly lives about a year. [9][2][11]
- **Why do crane fly legs fall off so easily?** Their legs are built to break off easily, which can help a crane fly escape when something grabs it. Please do not pick them up by the legs. [1][2][3]
- **What are leatherjackets and are they bad for lawns?** Leatherjackets are crane fly larvae. Large numbers can leave yellow-brown patches in lawns, but they are also food for rooks and starlings. Where control is needed, the RHS describes a biological control: tiny nematode worms that infect the larvae. [13]
- **What is the difference between a crane fly and a daddy-long-legs spider?** A crane fly is an insect with 6 legs and 2 wings. A daddy-long-legs (cellar) spider has 8 legs and no wings, and a harvestman is an 8-legged arachnid that is not a spider at all. [18][9]

### Crane fly myths and facts

Crane flies collect more myths than almost any garden insect. Here is what the evidence says.

- "Daddy-long-legs are the most venomous animals in the world, but their fangs are too small to bite you." **Myth!** Crane flies have no venom and no fangs at all. Harvestmen, also called daddy-long-legs, have no venom glands either. Cellar spiders do have venom for their prey, but there is no evidence that it is especially strong or that their bites harm people. [18][9][4]
- "Crane flies eat mosquitoes, so they are “mosquito hawks”." **Myth!** Adult crane flies have a soft snout, not hunting jaws, and most eat little or nothing. The name “mosquito hawk” is just a guess from their looks. The only crane flies known to eat mosquitoes are the water-living larvae of some species, not the leatherjackets in your lawn. [4][2][19]
- "Crane flies are giant mosquitoes that bite." **Myth!** They belong to a different family from mosquitoes and have no piercing mouthparts. Crane flies do not bite or sting people or animals. [9][4][1]
- "A crane fly can drop a leg and still fly away." **Fact!** Their legs break off very easily, which can help them escape if something grabs a leg. Their relatives the snow flies even drop freezing legs to survive the cold. [1][2][12]
- "Crane flies have four wings, like a dragonfly." **Myth!** Like all true flies they have just two wings. The second pair has become two tiny balancing knobs called halteres. [9][4][5]
- "Adult crane flies have no mouth." **Myth!** They do have mouthparts, at the tip of a short snout. Most adults barely use them, although some species sip nectar or water. [4][2]
- "“Daddy-long-legs” is the name of one animal." **Myth!** It is used for at least three: crane flies (mostly in Britain and Ireland), harvestmen (often in North America) and long-legged cellar spiders, sometimes called daddy-long-legs spiders. [13][18]
- "Crane flies are useless pests." **Myth!** Leatherjackets can damage lawns, but crane flies are important food. Rooks and starlings dig the larvae out of grass, brown long-eared bats eat lots of adults, and upland birds such as golden plovers rely on them in the breeding season. [13][7][20][21]

### Crane fly records

Not the fastest or the fiercest, but crane flies hold some surprising titles.

- Slowest wingbeats: Crane flies, ≈70 per second (In a study of 46 fly species, crane flies had the slowest wingbeats, about 30% of a typical fly’s. Mosquitoes and midges were fastest, at about 714 a second.) [8]
- Long, skinny wings: Crane flies and mosquitoes, aspect ratio ≈5.2 (These two old fly groups have the longest, narrowest wings for their width, compared with about 3.9 for flies overall.) [8]
- A crowded lawn: European crane fly larvae, ≈1,200 per m² (In a 1966 outbreak in British Columbia, Canada, there were about 110 leatherjackets per square foot of pasture, about 4.5 million per acre.) [11]
- Coldest walkers: Snow flies (crane-fly relatives), −7 °C (These wingless crane flies keep walking on snow until their bodies cool to about −7 °C.) [12]
- Ancient family: Crane flies, ≈245 million years (Crane flies first appear in rocks from the Middle Triassic, making them one of the oldest known groups of flies.) [2]
- A giant family tree: Crane flies worldwide, 15,768 species (Scientists recognise 15,768 species of crane fly, including 4,378 in the family Tipulidae. The genus Tipula alone has over 2,000.) [17][10]

### A crane fly’s life

A European crane fly lives for about a year, and almost all of it is spent underground.

- **Late August–October**: Out of the lawn. The pupa wriggles up to the surface and the adult climbs out of its pupal skin. [11][13]
- **Day 1**: Eggs in the grass. The female mates and lays her eggs in grass within 24 hours, reportedly about 200–300 of them. [11][10]
- **Days to 2 weeks**: Adult life ends. Adults live only a few days to about two weeks. [9][2]
- **A few weeks later**: Hatching. Tiny larvae hatch and start eating roots. Dry soil now can kill many eggs and young larvae. [13][11]
- **Winter**: Leatherjacket. The larvae grow a tough skin and stay underground through the cold months. [11][10]
- **March–mid-May**: Big feed. As the soil warms they feed hardest, and on damp, mild nights they come to the surface to eat. This is when lawn patches appear. [11]
- **June–August**: Rest and pupa. Feeding stops. The larva rests just below the surface, then turns into a pupa, ready to emerge. [11]

### Crane fly vs mosquito vs harvestman vs cellar spider

Three of these get called daddy-long-legs, and one gets mistaken for a giant crane fly. Here is how to tell them apart.

| | Crane fly | Mosquito | Harvestman | Cellar spider |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What is it? [9][18] | Insect (true fly) | Insect (true fly) | Arachnid, not a spider | Spider |
| Legs [18] | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| Wings [9][5] | 2, plus 2 halteres | 2, plus 2 halteres | None | None |
| Bites people? [9][22][18] | No | Yes, some species | No | No harmful bites known |
| Venom [18][9] | None | None | No venom glands | Venom for prey; no known harm to people |
| Wingbeats a second [8] | ≈70 | ≈714 (with midges) | – | – |
| Called daddy-long-legs in [13][18] | Britain and Ireland | – | North America | Often, as “daddy-long-legs spider” |

The quickest check: a crane fly has wings and a V-shaped groove on its back, and it cannot bite.

### Are crane flies endangered?

Garden crane flies are very common, but crane flies matter a lot to the animals that eat them.

- **IUCN Red List:** Not Evaluated (NE) (Trend unknown). Neither the genus Tipula nor the marsh crane fly has an IUCN assessment. The European and marsh crane flies are common in Europe and have become invasive pests of turf in North America. [23][16][24]
- Not assessed by the IUCN Red List
- **Threat: Dry late summers**: Eggs and young larvae dry out easily, so a dry autumn can wipe out many of them. [13][11]
- **Threat: Drying peat bogs** (56–81%): In British upland bogs, falling water tables under climate change could cut crane fly numbers by 56–81% by 2051–2080, and the birds that feed on them by 15–51%. [21]
- **Threat: Shifting seasons**: Warm Mays bring crane flies out earlier. Birds such as golden plovers time their breeding to this food, so climate change can put them out of step. [20]
- **Threat: Lawn insecticides**: Lawns and sports turf are often treated with insecticides to kill leatherjackets, especially where the European crane fly is an invasive pest. [16]
- **Helping: Share with the birds**: Crows, magpies, rooks and starlings dig leatherjackets out of lawns. A few patches can mean a lot of bird food. [13]
- **Helping: Nematodes, not sprays**: Gardeners with a real problem can use tiny nematode worms (Steinernema feltiae) that infect leatherjackets, applied in September to early October in moist soil above 12 °C. [13]
- **Helping: Keep bogs wet**: Crane fly numbers in blanket bogs depend on the water table, so keeping peat wet supports the insects and the birds that eat them. [21]
- **Helping: Bat food**: In Ireland, crane flies made up 57% of the fly prey found in the diet of brown long-eared bats. [7]

### Looks

- **Female**: Long, thick abdomen ending in a pointed, harmless egg-laying tip. In the European crane fly the female’s wings are shorter than her abdomen. (Lays her eggs into grass within a day of emerging) [4][9][10][11]
- **Male**: Slimmer abdomen with a blunt, club-shaped end. European crane fly males have shorter bodies and relatively large wings. (Lives only a few days as an adult) [9][10]
- **Leatherjacket (larva)**: Legless, greyish-brown tube up to about 30 mm long, with tough skin and no obvious head. (Eats grass roots underground; food for rooks and starlings) [13][11]
- **Marsh crane fly (Tipula oleracea)**: Very like the European crane fly, with wings 18–28 mm long. In females the wings are as long as the abdomen. (Flies in spring and again in late summer; invasive in North America) [7][14][16]

### Crane fly quiz

1. How many wings does a crane fly have? **2.** Like all true flies, crane flies have one pair of wings. The second pair has become halteres. [9][5]
2. What are a crane fly’s halteres? **Tiny balancing knobs.** Halteres are reduced back wings that sense turning. They help crane flies balance in the air and even when standing. [5][6]
3. What is a leatherjacket? **A crane fly larva.** Leatherjackets are crane fly larvae, named for their tough skin. [13][11]
4. Can crane flies bite people? **No.** Crane flies have no piercing mouthparts and do not bite or sting. [9][4]
5. About how many times a second do crane flies beat their wings? **≈70.** About 70 times a second, the slowest in a 46-species study. Mosquitoes and midges manage about 714. [8]
6. When do European crane flies come out of the ground? **August to October.** Adults emerge and lay eggs mostly from August to October. [13][11]
7. About how many eggs can a European crane fly female reportedly lay? **200–300.** About 200–300 small, shiny black eggs. [10]
8. Which of these is NOT called a daddy-long-legs? **Mosquito.** Crane flies, harvestmen and cellar spiders all get the name. Mosquitoes do not. [13][18]
9. How soon after emerging does a female crane fly lay eggs? **Within 24 hours.** She mates and lays her eggs in grass within a day of emerging. [11]
10. Which birds dig leatherjackets out of lawns? **Rooks and starlings.** Crows, magpies, rooks and starlings probe the turf for them, leaving small round holes. [13]
11. Is the pointed tip of a female crane fly a sting? **No, it lays eggs.** It is a harmless egg-laying tip that pushes eggs into the soil. [4]
12. Why do snow flies, crane-fly relatives, drop a leg? **To stop ice spreading.** When a leg starts to freeze, they drop it before the ice can reach the rest of the body. [12]

### Sources (checked 2026-10-16)

1. [Ohio State University Extension. Midges and crane flies, HYG-2129-97 (archived 2004).](https://web.archive.org/web/20040207133629/http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2129.html)
2. [Wikipedia. Crane fly.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly)
3. [Fleming PA, Muller D, Bateman PW (2007). Leave it all behind: a taxonomic perspective of autotomy in invertebrates. Biological Reviews 82:481–510.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-185X.2007.00020.x)
4. [Missouri Department of Conservation. Large crane flies (Field Guide).](https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/crane-flies)
5. [Lea KM, Ang MJ, Fox JL (2026). Halteres stabilize standing posture in crane flies. Current Biology.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.05.025)
6. [Hall JM, McLoughlin DP, Kathman ND, Yarger AM, Mureli S, Fox JL (2015). Kinematic diversity suggests expanded roles for fly halteres. Biology Letters 11:20150845.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0845)
7. [Hurpy G, Aughney T, Skujina I, Roche N, Teeling EC (2025). Metabarcoding reveals the dietary patterns of bats within a unique European habitat, the pasture-dominated landscapes of Ireland. Ecology and Evolution.](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.72310)
8. [Le Roy C, Bharathi I, Engels T, Muijres FT (2026). Dipteran flight diversity is shaped by aerodynamic constraints, scaling, and evolutionary trade-offs. PLoS Biology.](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003473)
9. [University of Kentucky Entomology. Crane flies of Kentucky (CritterFiles; archived 2017).](https://web.archive.org/web/20170503125002/http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/flies/craneflies/craneflies.htm)
10. [Wikipedia. Tipula paludosa.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipula_paludosa)
11. [Antonelli A (1983). European crane fly. Ornamentals Northwest Archives 7(1):19–21. Oregon State University / Washington State University.](https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/horticulture/osu-nursery-greenhouse-and-christmas-trees/onn070119.pdf)
12. [Golding D, Rupp KL, Sustar A, Pratt B, Tuthill JC (2023). Snow flies self-amputate freezing limbs to sustain behavior at sub-zero temperatures. Current Biology.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.002)
13. [Royal Horticultural Society. Leatherjackets (RHS Advice).](https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/leatherjackets)
14. [Wikipedia. Tipula oleracea.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipula_oleracea)
15. [Carter JB (1975). Rearing Tipula oleracea (Diptera, Tipulidae) in laboratory cultures. Plant Pathology 24:101–104.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3059.1975.tb01871.x)
16. [Peck DC, Olmstead D, Morales A (2008). Application timing and efficacy of alternatives for the insecticidal control of Tipula paludosa Meigen (Diptera: Tipulidae), a new invasive pest of turf in the northeastern United States. Pest Management Science.](https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.1592)
17. [Oosterbroek P. Catalogue of the Craneflies of the World (CCW): statistics (last modified 31 Aug 2026). Naturalis.](https://ccw.naturalis.nl/stats.php)
18. [Vetter RS. Daddy long legs. Spider Research, University of California, Riverside.](https://spiders.ucr.edu/daddy-long-legs)
19. [Missouri Department of Conservation. Crane fly larvae (Field Guide).](https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/crane-fly-larvae)
20. [Pearce-Higgins JW, Yalden DW, Whittingham MJ (2005). Warmer springs advance the breeding phenology of golden plovers Pluvialis apricaria and their prey (Tipulidae). Oecologia.](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1820-z)
21. [Carroll MJ, Heinemeyer A, Pearce-Higgins JW, et al. (2015). Hydrologically driven ecosystem processes determine the distribution and persistence of ecosystem-specialist predators under climate change. Nature Communications 6:7851.](https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8851)
22. [University of Kentucky Entomology. Mosquitoes: practical advice for homeowners (ENTFACT-005).](https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef005)
23. [GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Tipula and Tipula oleracea: IUCN Red List category Not Evaluated (NE).](https://www.gbif.org/species/1446543)
24. [Petersen MJ (2013). Evidence of a climatic niche shift following North American introductions of two crane flies (Diptera; genus Tipula). Biological Invasions.](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0337-3)

## Measurements & details

- **Wingspan:** 40-60 mm
- **Size:** 10-25 mm
- **Lifespan:** 10-15 days
- **Flight Speed:** 3-8 km/h
- **Leg Count:** 6

## Diet & Feeding

Adult crane flies usually don't eat, but their larvae are busy munching on roots and decaying plants!

- **Age differences:** Larvae eat roots and decaying plants; adults typically do not feed or only consume nectar/water.
- **Primary Foods:** decaying plant matter, grass roots, leaf litter, moss, fungi
- **Foraging Method:** Foraging

## Ecological connections

- **Eaten by:** [European Starling](https://www.snappit.app/explore/european-starling) (*Sturnus vulgaris*) — Birds like starlings often prey on adult crane flies.
- **Eaten by:** Common Frog (*Rana temporaria*) — Frogs readily consume the slow-moving adult crane flies.
- **Depends on:** Perennial Ryegrass (*Lolium perenne*) — Larvae feed on roots, sometimes causing lawn damage.

## Traits

- [Social](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/social): Social animals live in organized groups, cooperating for survival benefits such as foraging, defense, and raising offspring.
- [Aerial](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/aerial): Aerial creatures spend a significant portion of their lives airborne, utilizing flight for various activities such as hunting, migration, or nesting.
- [Grassland](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/grassland): Grassland habitats are terrestrial biomes dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants, supporting a variety of grazing animals.
- [Herbivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/herbivorous): This trait characterizes organisms whose diet consists entirely or primarily of plant material.
- [Diurnal](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/diurnal): Diurnal animals are primarily active during daylight hours, typically resting or sleeping at night.
- [Giant](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/giant): Giant describes organisms or objects of significantly larger size than average for their species or type.
- [Pollinator](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/pollinator): Describes organisms that transfer pollen, enabling the fertilization and reproduction of plants.

## Collections

- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects)

## Safety

**Danger:** 1/5 · Very low

Crane Flies are safe to watch, but don't try to catch them!

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How to identify Common Crane Flies?

Look for six legs, antennae, three body sections and the shape of the wings. Beetles have hardened front wings; flies have just one working pair. Tiny insects may need a close view before their group is clear. Insect Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

### What is Common Crane Flies's wingspan?

40-60 mm

### How big is Common Crane Flies?

10-25 mm

### How long does Common Crane Flies live?

10-15 days

### How fast can Common Crane Flies fly?

3-8 km/h

### What does Common Crane Flies eat?

Adult crane flies usually don't eat, but their larvae are busy munching on roots and decaying plants!

### Where is Common Crane Flies usually found?

Grasslands

### How does Common Crane Flies hunt?

Foraging

## More Insects

- [Common Eastern Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/common-eastern-bumble-bee) (*Bombus impatiens*)
- [Spotted Lanternfly](https://www.snappit.app/explore/spotted-lanternfly) (*Lycorma delicatula*)
- [Brown-belted Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/brown-belted-bumble-bee) (*Bombus griseocollis*)
- [Eastern Carpenter Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-carpenter-bee) (*Xylocopa virginica*)

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Source: [Common Crane Flies: Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/common-crane-flies)