EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

An Unknown Phantom

Phantom Crane Fly, Family Ptychopteridae
Waipoua, North Island, New Zealand

Explanation:  While exploring a native, old-growth kauri forest in North Island, New Zealand, well after dark, my headlamp illuminated this pale inhabitant clinging to some foliage.  This is an insect, and a type of fly known as a phantom crane fly.  I was unable to identify the species, although it may be otherwise known and catalogued.  

I presume this specimen is pupating, given its pale appearance and body form.  Larve of phantom crane flies often inhabit wet soil or in organic debris on which they feed, and they have an abdominal breathing tube.  Adults are more strikingly marked, and tend to drift in the wind with legs extended, and can seem to disappear from sight, giving rise to their phantom appellation.  

We encountered phantom crane flies in a previous EPOW episode in the Congo of Africa.