European Crane Fly

Tipula paludosa · Order: Diptera · Family: Tipulidae

Also called: European cranefly

Damages trees, gardens or crops. These crane flies damage lawns, pastures and cereal crops by their larvae feeding on grass roots and stems.

The larvae live in soil, feed on turf and forage grasses and cereal crops, and can cause serious damage to lawns and fields.

Size

Adult bodies measure 1.5 to 2.5 cm; pupae are 3 to 4 cm long.

They are common in lawns, pastures and hayfields where the larvae damage plant roots, stems and leaves.

Larvae feed on all turf and forage grasses and on cereal crops. Adult flies do not feed and live only about two weeks.

The species follows a seasonal life cycle, with larvae stopping feeding by mid-May and entering a non-feeding stage in June.

Larvae pupate in late August and adults emerge soon after, mating immediately. Adults live only about two weeks and do not feed.

Native to north-western Europe, including Britain and Ireland, and introduced to northern North America such as Canada.

Recorded in 14 of 51 states and DC. Most records: New York, Washington, Vermont, Oregon, California, Maine, Michigan, Alaska.

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Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: introduced in North America; introduced in United States; introduced in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

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Source: GBIF

How can I tell a male from a female?

Males are smaller and have larger wings than females.

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.