Female crane fly (family Tipulidae) laying eggs. I knew some species lay eggs in soil, but wasn’t expecting it to look this silly 😆
While most crane fly adults don’t feed (they’re not giant mosquitoes!), most larvae eat dead plant matter. Larvae are an important part of the soil ecosystem because they convert organic matter into nutrients that plants and other life forms can use. Crane flys are also an important food source at all stages of their life for everything from spiders to song birds.
3rd batch of Good morning Mr Echo!, surely the best batch so far
1-4 5-7
the chapter will wrap up in the next batch so i'll put all pages together in one convenient post with the end. Fancy!
I am very intrigued by this paragraph from the Missouri department of conservation website that seems to suggest people try hand-feeding injured flies to sand wasps