Still Waters Posted April 24, 2018 #1 Share Posted April 24, 2018 An insect expert claimed to have caught the world's largest mosquito with an astonishing 11.15cm (4.4in) wing span - about 10 times longer than that of an average mosquito. The massive insect was caught on Qingcheng Mountain in south-west China's Sichuan Province. The mosquito was discovered by Chinese entomologist Zhao Li during a field inspection in August, 2017. Mr Zhao told MailOnline the insect belonged to a species called holorusia mikado, which is the world's largest mosquito species originating in Japan. Although the insect is also known as crane fly in the West, which is thought to be different from a mosquito. Mr Zhao insisted that the insect he found was a mosquito.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5647221/Worlds-largest-mosquito-caught-bigger-hand.html 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnoferox Posted April 24, 2018 #2 Share Posted April 24, 2018 Holorusia is a crane fly (family Tipulidae), not a mosquito (family Culicidae). Zhao's concept of what a mosquito is is wrong. 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unfortunately Posted April 24, 2018 #3 Share Posted April 24, 2018 (edited) So here is an excerpt from the article to give an idea on where Mr. Zhao's argument stems from: "Mr Zhao, who is a senior biological engineer and senior wild animal protection engineer, said crane fly is the name given to the entire insect family of Tipulidae, which in Chinese translates into 'big mosquito'. Mr Zhao said from the biological point of view, a mosquito is any insect belonging to the Nematocera insect group. There are seven groups of mosquito, including Tipuloidea (which includes crane flies) and Chironomidae. The expert also said that a cultural gap might have caused a confusion. 'There are a wide definition and a narrow definition of the mosquito family. Under the narrow definition, only a mosquito that bites is a mosquito." This seems like a bit of a 'lost in translation' issue or perhaps just an unwillingness to conform to biological standards? Calling crane flies and other insects 'Mosquitoes' purely because of his given reasoning seems a bit farfetched if you ask me. Edit: No idea what went wrong with the formatting of my post. Just ignore the font-size changes please :). Edited April 24, 2018 by Unfortunately 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khol Posted April 25, 2018 #4 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Still not as big as what we have here in northern canada eh...big? mosquitos here are so big they'll stand flat footed and b***** a moose no problem ... pardon the expression Ive had to work in clouds of the smaller ones and its pure hell signs like this are quite common 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted April 25, 2018 #5 Share Posted April 25, 2018 The unofficial state bird of Alaska is the mosquito. 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlitterRose Posted April 25, 2018 #6 Share Posted April 25, 2018 What the heck is the purpose of the mosquito? If I ever actually meet God, that's gonna be one of my questions. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orphalesion Posted April 25, 2018 #7 Share Posted April 25, 2018 12 hours ago, Carnoferox said: Holorusia is a crane fly (family Tipulidae), not a mosquito (family Culicidae). Zhao's concept of what a mosquito is is wrong. Yep, that was my first thought as well. But it seems it's a cultural misunderstanding...it's a crane fly but they call it a mosquito in Chinese? 9 hours ago, Michelle said: The unofficial state bird of Alaska is the mosquito. What is it with cold wet places getting so many mosquitos? Siberia has, apparently, also a lot of them. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted April 25, 2018 #8 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Tell'ya what... That thing come on my hide I will slap it back to China. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oniomancer Posted April 25, 2018 #9 Share Posted April 25, 2018 16 hours ago, Carnoferox said: Holorusia is a crane fly (family Tipulidae), not a mosquito (family Culicidae). Zhao's concept of what a mosquito is is wrong. Yeah, he keeps digging himself in deeper. Checking the nomenclature against wiki shows he's wrong, particularly since the Nematocera contains several non-mosquito-like groups.Calling them all mosquitoes is more than a bit disingenuous. Just looking at the head you can see it's a cranefly. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnoferox Posted April 25, 2018 #10 Share Posted April 25, 2018 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Oniomancer said: Yeah, he keeps digging himself in deeper. Checking the nomenclature against wiki shows he's wrong, particularly since the Nematocera contains several non-mosquito-like groups.Calling them all mosquitoes is more than a bit disingenuous. Just looking at the head you can see it's a cranefly. Some of it seems to be due to the language barrier, but it is also because he is using informal terms as opposed to the correct phylogenetic nomenclature. An entomologist like him should know better. Edited April 25, 2018 by Carnoferox 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_mc Posted April 25, 2018 #11 Share Posted April 25, 2018 (edited) Crane flies ("harkrankar" in Swedish) are common where I live in Sweden. However, I and my parents have always called them "long-legged mosquitoes" ("långbenta myggor" in Swedish), or simply "longlegs" ("långbentingar" in Swedish), and I still call them that by old habit, even though I now know that they are called something else ... and yes, they are quite big. They do actually resemble spiders with long legs so you might confuse them with spiders. Edited April 25, 2018 by fred_mc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoofGardener Posted April 25, 2018 #12 Share Posted April 25, 2018 Whatever happened to crane flies ? We used to have them all the time (UK Midlands).... .they'd get into the house... all over the place. But I havn't seen them for YEARS ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted April 26, 2018 #13 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Crane Fly. Harmless, but not a mosquito. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susanc241 Posted April 26, 2018 #14 Share Posted April 26, 2018 11 hours ago, RoofGardener said: Whatever happened to crane flies ? We used to have them all the time (UK Midlands).... .they'd get into the house... all over the place. But I havn't seen them for YEARS ? You know, now you mention it, you are right. I am also in U.K. Midlands and I haven’t seen one of these 'daddy longlegs' as I call them, around for yonks. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander CMG Posted April 26, 2018 #15 Share Posted April 26, 2018 On 25/04/2018 at 4:43 AM, ChaosRose said: What the heck is the purpose of the mosquito? If I ever actually meet God, that's gonna be one of my questions. Also mention the Scottish Midge to God also please..... Oh and Politicians.. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander CMG Posted April 26, 2018 #16 Share Posted April 26, 2018 1 minute ago, Susanc241 said: You know, now you mention it, you are right. I am also in U.K. Midlands and I haven’t seen one of these 'daddy longlegs' as I call them, around for yonks. We still have them, just has many has ever...I am UK based, a mile from Howarth... Bronte Country..I am forever catching and releasing them from the house, they freak my daughter out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susanc241 Posted April 26, 2018 #17 Share Posted April 26, 2018 2 minutes ago, Iilaa'mpuul'xem said: We still have them, just has many has ever...I am UK based, a mile from Howarth... Bronte Country..I am forever catching and releasing them from the house, they freak my daughter out. Please keep them up there (beautiful place by the way, used to live in Yorkshire and visited many times) as they freak me out also. Spiders are bad enough with their long spindly legs (it’s the legs that get to me) and a FLYING bunch of spindly legs is just eeeeek, . 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.United_Nations Posted April 26, 2018 #18 Share Posted April 26, 2018 Saw a baby crane fly few days ago 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted April 27, 2018 #19 Share Posted April 27, 2018 On April 26, 2018 at 5:00 AM, Mr.United_Nations said: Saw a baby crane fly few days ago Doesn't work that way, a baby would be a maggot that lives in leaf litter. You just saw a small species of adult Crane Fly. We have the large and the small where I live, I think the larva can be an agricultural pest that damages roots of plants, but the adults are harmless. My father used to try and tell us they were giant mosquitos when we were kids. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted April 27, 2018 #20 Share Posted April 27, 2018 So we don't have to worry about a SyFy movie GIANTMOSQUITNADO? Then GIANTMOSQUITNADO II - The Blood Suckers are back! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Falukorv Posted April 27, 2018 #21 Share Posted April 27, 2018 On 2018-04-25 at 9:41 PM, fred_mc said: Crane flies ("harkrankar" in Swedish) are common where I live in Sweden. However, I and my parents have always called them "long-legged mosquitoes" ("långbenta myggor" in Swedish), or simply "longlegs" ("långbentingar" in Swedish), and I still call them that by old habit, even though I now know that they are called something else ... and yes, they are quite big. They do actually resemble spiders with long legs so you might confuse them with spiders. Jag har faktiskt aldrig hört någon kalla dom långbenta myggor eller långbentingar. Men däremot att folk kallar dom "pappa långben" fastän det egentligen är smeknamnet för lockespindeln. I have actually never heard anyone call them "long-legged mosquitoes" or "longlegs" However some call them daddy longlegs even though that is the nickname for the harvestman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
internetperson Posted April 28, 2018 #22 Share Posted April 28, 2018 Mosquitoes are my only real qualm with living in FL. So annoying when you're trying to sleep and you can hear the high pitch noise they make while flying. Odd how some people attract them more than others. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_mc Posted April 28, 2018 #23 Share Posted April 28, 2018 14 hours ago, Herr Falukorv said: Jag har faktiskt aldrig hört någon kalla dom långbenta myggor eller långbentingar. Men däremot att folk kallar dom "pappa långben" fastän det egentligen är smeknamnet för lockespindeln. I have actually never heard anyone call them "long-legged mosquitoes" or "longlegs" However some call them daddy longlegs even though that is the nickname for the harvestman. Ok. Interesting. Maybe there are regional differences in what they are called. I'm not familiar with the name "pappa långben". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herr Falukorv Posted April 28, 2018 #24 Share Posted April 28, 2018 3 hours ago, fred_mc said: Ok. Interesting. Maybe there are regional differences in what they are called. I'm not familiar with the name "pappa långben". Ok here in Göteborg most people call them "Pappa långben" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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