common crane fly

Tipula submaculata is a medium-sized common crane fly. It occurs from Nova Scotia to South Carolina west to Wisconsin and Arkansas.

Adults are slender, soft-bodied, yellowish- or grayish-brown, and no more than 1″ in length.

There are two large compound eyes on the sides of the head and no simple eyes (ocelli). The mouth parts are at the end of a short but conspicuous, snout-like projection (rostrum) on the front of the head. The lower jaws (maxillae) have long sensory structures (palps) attached. Each palp has four segments. The fourth segment is antennae-like and very long, longer than first three segments combined. The antennae are short and have 13 segments. The segments are simple, not branched. Each segment is dark at the base and pale at the tip, giving the antennae a ringed appearance.

The upper thoracic plate (mesonotum) is brownish-gray with dull, darker gray, longitudinal stripes. It has a distinct, V-shaped groove (suture) on top near the wing bases.

The abdomen is long, slender, yellowish-brown, and has nine evident segments. On the female two adjacent segments near the end of the abdomen are distinctly darker. The last segment on the female has a long, acutely pointed, egg-laying apparatus (ovipositor). On the male, the last segment is enlarged into a club-shaped structure (hypopygium) that supports the copulatory apparatus.

The wings are tinted brown with a few whitish cells around the darkened stigma. There are two anal veins, both of them long and reaching the wing margin. The first anal vein (A1) is very long and straight, curving abruptly to the inner margin just at the end.

Total length: no more than 1″

Tipula mallochi and Tipula submaculata are extremely similar in appearance. Females cannot be told apart. Males can be differentiated only by examining their genitalia under a microscope.

Sources

24, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 7/10/2025).

This species has no common name. The common name of the genus Tipula is common crane flies, and it is applied here for convenience.

Location: Vetsch Park, La Crescent MN

I went out to Vetsch Park in La Crescent for a hike and took this picture of mating crane flies. Tipula submaculata was the closest I could come to in identifying them.