Daddy Long Legs

Crane Fly or Daddy long Legs ( Tipula Paludosa )

Crane flies first appeared during the Middle Triassic, around 245 million years ago, making them one of the oldest known groups of flies. The Uk species are Tipula paludosa ( Meadow white-stripe or European Crane Fly) and Tipula oleracea ( Marsh crane fly).

I saw European Crane flies when I was out on the moor today. Hordes of them. It was quite windy. They broke cover when disturbed by Otis’s unrelenting pursuit of anything in the Bracken and Gorse cover. Otis is a Husky German Shepherd cross.

I wonder if the Upperworld forms part of Crane fly legend ? The collective consciousness of Cranefly behavioural ecology? The Upperworld. I wonder if that is what it's really like being a Crane fly. Eleven months  tunnelling through the ground as leather Jackets eating grass roots avoiding Rooks , Starlings Crows, Shrews. Craneflies are a big part of the food chain as food. Imagine living like that ? Driven by  the dream of love and light. The Upperworld.

I mistakenly thought that once emerged from the ground they only lived for a few days. Apparently, they can wobble around for up to 15 days. Unlikely on Bodmin moor as there is a high chance they will be crushed by falling poo within minutes of breaking free from the earth.

Maximum of 15 days to live and love in the upper world. Amazed , Like a Cranefly version of the MGM musical classic “On The Town” ( Look it up) New York New York !!!!  Its a wonderful town. 15-day pass. Watch out for death from above , or anywhere really. Love, Light, Boys, Girls. The Upperworld.

Crane flies live under ground for a few years as the “identified pest” Leather Jackets.  They have not been thwarted from being high profile killer creatures like Black widows, Sea Snakes, Hippopotamuses. Crane flies do not have the most venomous bite of any living creature.    They have vestigial mouthparts thus are unable to eat. Not even people. What Craneflies do is get in the way by being very clumsy.

  Otis doesn’t hunt  Crane flies , which surprises me. Otis will sit and wait patiently for a fruit fly to make a break for it and then charge around like he hadn’t eaten for 3 days and seen a Yak. He treats all hunting like that. The prey drive is real. Mice and shrews are his thing mainly. He makes Ferrets look casual. He is very selective. Hedgehogs he sits and watches. Cows he ignores (sensible) Horses like him, but he was chased by a very playful over enthusiastic foal, so he looks straight ahead now when the ponies come to look. The Hard sheep come to look at him and the shocked new sheep run away. It's taken 3 years to teach him to ignore sheep and now most of the time he does.

Crane Flies remind me of going back to primary school after the summer holidays. I remember them hanging on the external brick end wall of my Classroom. “Jack the Slipper”, magistrate and dispenser of corporal punishment for my Primary School. Younger children were sometimes marched into to our classroom, in lesson time and hit on the bottom with his dread eponymous weapon. A black plimsole. Beaten in front of an older class. Jack was an older man, probably did service in WW2. It surprised me that he hit children. Magistrate .

What was all that about ? I wonder what his world view conscienceness was ?