Jim McCoy wrote:

> Speaking of winged creatures that begin with b, I found a dying flying
> insect on my porch this morning (which meets the 'b' standard if I refer to
> it colloquially as a 'bug'). It had a long, copper-colored abdomen,
> accounting for perhaps 75-80% of its length of maybe an inch and a half, a
> black-and-white striped thorax, largish wings and extraordinarily long
> legs, not unlike a "daddy longlegs" spider. I saw several more of what I
> took to be the same insect this evening, patrolling just centimeters above a
> dirt/gravel path. Any idea what these guys are? I'm curious about what the
> adaptive value of long legs on a flying insect might be in this case. I'm
> currently reading the Origin of Species for the first time and my mind is
> even more than usually inclined to wonder about such things just now...

Jim, this sounds like the world's largest crane fly, Holorusia rubiginosa,
found right here in the Pacific Northwest. Same family as those larvae that
the starlings and other lawn-feeding birds are fond of. For a photo of it,
look in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Pacific Northwest.

Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115