There are not very many insects that could be mistaken for a dragonfly, but the color and pattern on the abdomen of this crane fly made me do a double take when I spotted it from a distance on Monday in Prince William County. At that time I had not yet seen my first dragonfly of the year and was anxious to see one. An expert in a Facebook group identified this as a Crane Fly (Tipula noveboracensis).
The first image is a cropped version of the photo that allows you to focus on the wonderful patterns on the wings and the body. If you click on the image, you can see that the crane fly has antennae. The second shot is much less cropped and gives you an idea of the length of the extremely long legs of this insect.
When I am out in the winter looking for birds, I sometimes end up taking photos of odd branches or clumps of leaves, because their shapes make me think that they might be birds. I have the same “problem” with dragonflies—I am likely to photograph anything that remotely resembles a dragonfly, knowing that later I will be able to sort the images and remove the oddball results. Sometimes, as was the case here, my strange results are worth posting.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
These are among my favorite insects. People often mistake them for mosquitoes (or dragonflies:-) ) and kill them which is a shame since they do not bite at all. Aka “tippies”.
These crane flies would be pretty big for mosquitoes–I would not want to be bitten by one. It is definitely cool that they are among your favorites, though I suspect that you have lots of favorites (as I do).
Your usual attention to detail. Lovely to see the patterns and colours
Yes, yes, no ! Where are its eyes ? ! ? ! Crane flies are neat don’t get me wrong. And proportionately I think the legs are even longer.
The legs are crazy long and the eyes are a whole lot smaller than the gigantic compound eyes of a dragonfly. At this time of the year there are relatively few insects flying, so it’s easy to get my hopes up that any one of them could be a dragonfly.
Very nice images Mike! Never saw one of these! Enjoyed seeing your images!