Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Daddy-long-legs, the "invisible" insect

Assignment in Advanced Ecology, UST Graduate School.
Research on this insect's very unusual mechanism of survival, and enigmatic life cycle.
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog



Daddy-long-legs (Tipula sp) photographed with fast shutter to freeze the insect. The insect belongs to Diptera, the Order of flies and mosquitoes. Note pair of hind wings reduced into balancers called halteres. 

Ginggined - that's its Ilocano name,
quaking all the time while at rest;
its body and shadow are but a haze,
a unique camouflage at its best.

Surreptitiously I watched for an hour,
which one of us would long endure;
I lost - and it was quaking still;
and soon I was seeing a whole tour.

A mating signal, a body language;
match making in an orgy fashion;
pair by pair they took into the air;
        whoever thought of this evolution. ~
  

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