Family Ptychopteridae - Phantom Crane Flies

Classification · Numbers · Identification · Habitat · Season · Life Cycle · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Phantom Crane Fly - Bittacomorpha clavipes

Mating Phantoms - Bittacomorpha clavipes - male - female

Black and White Flying Bug - Bittacomorpha clavipes

Phantom Crane Flies mating - Bittacomorpha clavipes - male - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon ("Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera))

Infraorder Ptychopteromorpha

Family Ptychopteridae (Phantom Crane Flies)

Numbers

Nearctica.com and Arnett, p. 862 (1) list 3 genera in family: Bittacomorpha (2 spp) Bittacomorphella (4 spp), and Ptychoptera (11 spp.) About twelve genera worldwide.

Identification

Medium-sized flies with long legs, slow flight, esp. in Bittacomorpha, the genus most easily observed due to its slow flights.

Habitat

Near ponds, wetlands

Season

Summer

Life Cycle

Larvae are detritivores in mud of wetlands. Bittacomorpha clavipes, a common species of eastern North America, is seen flying slowly at eye-level, often in open areas. This sure looks like some sort of sexual display.

Print References

Arnett, p. 862 (1)

Internet References

Family Ptychopteridae--Phantom Crane Flies--Insects of Cedar Creek

Aquatic Insects of Michigan

Works Cited

1.	American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico By Ross H. Arnett

Contributed by Cotinis on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Stephen Cresswell
Last updated 4 August, 2006 - 11:55am

From Paul Beuk -- http://www.diptera.info

Tricky!
It is not always easy to separate them, indeed. After a while you get the jizz, but there are a few characters. The suture on the mesonotum of the Tipulidae is V-shaped, in the Ptychopteridae it is U-shaped. The latter is nicely visible in the species from Japan given here:

Helpful in the field may sometimes be that the antennae in Ptychopteridae are often relatively longer, slender and directed upwards or even backwards (as in the picture above). In Ptychopteridae, too, there usually is a cluster of cross-veins close together (again, see picture above, not visible in the linked image because of the black wing marking) which is often not the case in Tipulidae.

One of the official characters in the presence of a short side-branch on the stalk of the halter in the Ptychopteridae. That is (as far as I know) not found anywhere else in the Diptera.

http://www.diptera.info
… Paul Beuk, 7 March, 2005 - 3:24pm

… john and jane balaban, 7 March, 2005 - 3:47pm

Comments moved to guide

I moved these comments to the guide.

… Cotinis, 28 July, 2004 - 2:49pm

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