order
Coleoptera
“Adult Beetles”
Coleoptera
“Larval Beetles”
Diptera
“True Flies”
Ephemeroptera
“Mayflies”
Hemiptera
“True Bugs”
Lepidoptera
“Aquatic Caterpillars, Snout Moths”
Megaloptera
“Alderflies, Dobsonflies, and Fishflies”
Odonata
“Dragonflies and Damselflies”
Plecoptera
“Stoneflies”
Trichoptera
“Caddisflies”
family
Limoniidae
“Limoniid Crane Flies”
Genus Overview
37 species in North America.
Characteristics
POLLUTION TOLERANCE
Southeast: 4.7 and higher
Upper Midwest: 2 and higher
Midwest: 2.3 and higher
Mid-Atlantic: 2 and higher
FEEDING HABITS
Engulfer / Predator
MOVEMENT
Burrower
Clinger
Sprawler
Clinger
Sprawler
DISTRIBUTION
Widespread (east of the Rocky Mtns.)
HABITAT
Lentic-littoral
Lotic-depositional
Lotic-erosional
Lotic-depositional
Lotic-erosional
Diagnostic Characters
Order
Legs Absent
Family
Head Retracted in Thorax
Posterior Spiracles with Lobes
+ Expanded Character List
Order:
Wings and wing pads absent. Eye spots sometimes visible, but compound eyes absent. Segmented legs absent, but sometimes fleshy prolegs present. Sometimes with distinct head, often without head or with head drawn deeply into thorax. Body flattened, cylindrical, or maggot-like.
Family:
Mandibles moving against one another along an horizontal or oblique plane. Hardened head capsule always deeply retracted inside thorax; often with length-wise incisions of varying depths beginning at posterior margin of head, and extending forward; in extreme cases head consisting of only several slender rods (visible only via disection of thorax). Spiracles absent (apneustic) or with 1 pair at posterior end of body (metapneustic); posterior spiracles rimmed by 2–7 (usually 5) lobes often fringed with hair. Mature larvae usually 10–25 mm long.
Genus:
swollen 7th segment of abdomen, spiracle plate usually 4, abdominal segments without creeping welts, blades of maxillae not projected from retracted head
Dorsal
Ventral