Could you imagine being so rare hardly anybody knew you existed?  Well, that’s the insect I got stuck with.  My animal is the Erioptera Chlorophyll a otherwise known as daddy longlegs.  It’s not a spider if that’s what you’re thinking; it’s actually a crane fly.  The three topics I’m going to talk about are its appearance, habitat, and interesting facts. 

The Erioptera Chlorophylla’s appearance is actually quite interesting.  It has long skinny legs and that is why they call it the “daddy longlegs”.  Larvae have a distinguished head capsule.  As an adult, Erioptera Chlorophyll a has a white body with clear wings.  The adult has a smallish head with a fairly good sized body.  As an adult it can be from 2 to 60 millimeters long.  When one is found, kids can mistake it for a mosquito.

The next topic is the daddy longlegs’ habitat.  There are three classified places where crane flies live.  They are aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial habitats.  Mine is aquatic even though as an adult it lives on land.  The only place you would find this animal is in wet marsh areas.  The larvae of this bug lives in water.  Only some of the crane flies have been observed, so some of the habitats have been assumed based on theories.

One interesting fact is that, the crane fly only lives for a couple of days.  Another is that it usually doesn’t eat at all. Another is that it looks like a mosquito, but does no damage to humans. They have predators such as birds, some insects, spiders, and even carnivorous plants.  Tipuliidae, which is the class the crane fly as an adult, is the largest class of flies.  So this little guy is actually kind of interesting, wouldn’t you say?

Even though Erioptera Chlorophylla is very rare, it is still interesting looking, has a cool habitat, and has some interesting information.  With advancing technology, maybe the scientists will be able to find out more in the future.  For now, there is limited information on the Erioptera Chlorophyll a. Like other animals, some of their characteristics have been assumed by other members of its family.

Author: Lane P.
Published: 02/2013 

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erioptera
Picture Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erioptera