So... I'm helping sort Malaise trap samples from Flanders Moss NNR (http://www.nnr-scotland.org.uk/flanders-moss/). David Pryce (owner of trap) is looking for a special caddis fly (the species escapes me), but as the trap catches a lot of flying insects and some spiders, I am helping him to identify the crane flies. It is good practice for me!
I started sorting the crane flies yesterday and chose a good starting point... a large, grey species that looked very much like Tipula luna. So I skipped the family, subfamily and genus keys and went straight to Tipula. Four hours later... fruitless key, fruitless Google image searches, and fruitless analysis of Tipula atlas.
Luckily, help was at hand and I emailed a photo of the female specimen to Alan Stubbs (expert man) at Buglife, who soon replied with the suggestion that I look to Prionocera (of which there are 3 species). Success - it was Prionocera turcica! However, I have learnt a valuable lesson that skipping parts of the identification process is not a good idea at my level of expertise (low)!
Here is the beautiful creature:
You learn from your mistakes - even the experts get it wrong sometimes!
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