Short-palped Crane Fly: S2, Male, profile

Short-palped Crane Fly (Symplecta pilipes)

Class:

Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)

Order:

Flies (Diptera)

Family:

Small Crane Fly (Tipulomorpha: Limoniidae) iNaturalist Observation

Species:

Short-palped Crane Fly (Symplecta pilipes)

This Photo:

S2, Male, profile

Thank you Zac Billingham for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
The female was ~9mm long. We haven't measured a male yet.
Note the female has, what looks like, an ovipositor. The males have claps to hold the female when mating. These can often be seen through the wings.
The big visual difference between Crane flies & Scorpion flies is that Scorpion flies (Order Mecoptera) have 4 wings and are not true flies.
Crane flies are true flies which all have 2 wings and 2 clubs (halteres). Due to their slender bodies the Crane fly halteres are much easier to see than with many other fly species.

This species is

Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.

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