Cranefly Eating

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

acerola
Posts: 251
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:28 pm
Location: Hungary
Contact:

Cranefly Eating

Post by acerola »

I did not see a cranefly to eat many time, but I do see one time. I manage to photograph it.

Canon 20D + 100 mm macro lens
Image
Last edited by acerola on Mon May 19, 2008 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Péter

lauriek
Posts: 2402
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:57 am
Location: South East UK
Contact:

Post by lauriek »

That's really nice! Good work getting so close - I find them twitchy buggers to shoot while alive, they keep flying off when I get anywhere near them.. Worse than most bugs except possibly ichneumons, which I rarely get near..

I like the composition, it's a bit strange with all those legs going all over the place but I think it works well, and the lighting is also really good! :)

Strange you don't see many over there, here in the south east UK when they are in season I could collect pots full if I wanted to, they are sometimes almost a plague... (Not that bad so far this year but I see several each time I wander in grassland at the moment)

ETA Nice too to know that they DO eat!! :)

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

Makes you wonder what purpose those long legs serve. They seem more of a hindrance than a help. Nice picture.

DaveW

acerola
Posts: 251
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:28 pm
Location: Hungary
Contact:

Post by acerola »

Lauriek: There are plenty of them here either. I just leave the word out of my sentence first. 'I did not see a cranefly _to eat_ many time' :oops:

Most of the time they fly away, but I managed to get close to this one. I made this picture in 2005 and maybe I used a Canon close up lens also. It does not really matters, but I just bought it then.
Péter

acerola
Posts: 251
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:28 pm
Location: Hungary
Contact:

Post by acerola »

DaveW: there must be some reason for the long legs... Maybe a picture? Anybody? :lol:
Péter

Erland R.N.
Posts: 335
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:20 pm
Location: Kolding, Denmark
Contact:

Post by Erland R.N. »

I think you captured something special here. At least I've never seen it before. Very detailed.

Erland

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

I never knew these things could eat either until now. I know that the larvae can be pretty distructive though. I found one here awhile back with bright geen eyes. A good question brought up about those legs also, wonder why they are so long? We human beings have a lot of unusual things on us that really do not make sense nor serve a practical purpose but insects and other things in nature don't just have somethings, just for decoration or maybe a conversation piece. :-k They always seem to have a practical purpose, though not so obvious sometimes. :D

acerola
Posts: 251
Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:28 pm
Location: Hungary
Contact:

Post by acerola »

Maybe a specialist could tell us more. But I afraid we did not know all of the special behavior of each insect. There are just so many. This crane fly has for example a special abdomen as you can see in the picture. Maybe the eating is only special for this species.

Thanks for your comments.
Péter

DaveW
Posts: 1702
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 am
Location: Nottingham, UK

Post by DaveW »

If I don't know I often ask Google questions. So I asked "What do Crane Flies eat" and got this:-

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly

Alas the question "Why do Crane Flies have long legs" did not find an answer!

DaveW

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic