order
                        
                      
                                    Coleoptera
                                       “Adult Beetles”
                                  
                                    Coleoptera
                                       “Larval Beetles”
                                  
                                    Diptera
                                       “True Flies”
                                  
                                    Ephemeroptera
                                       “Mayflies”
                                  
                                    Hemiptera
                                       “True Bugs”
                                  
                                    Lepidoptera
                                       “Aquatic Caterpillars, Snout Moths”
                                  
                                    Megaloptera
                                       “Alderflies, Dobsonflies, and Fishflies”
                                  
                                    Odonata
                                       “Dragonflies and Damselflies”
                                  
                                    Plecoptera
                                       “Stoneflies”
                                  
                                    Trichoptera
                                       “Caddisflies”
                                 family
                        
                     Limoniidae
               
            
                  “Limoniid Crane Flies”
               
      Genus Overview
                  
               
                        37 species in North America. 
                  
               Characteristics
                  
               POLLUTION TOLERANCE
                        Southeast: 4.7 and higher
                                 Upper Midwest: 2 and higher
                                 Midwest: 2.3 and higher
                                 Mid-Atlantic: 2 and higher
                              0 = least tolerant, 10 = most tolerant
                        FEEDING HABITS
                        
                                 Engulfer / Predator
                        
                     MOVEMENT
                        
                                 Burrower
Clinger
Sprawler
                        
                     Clinger
Sprawler
DISTRIBUTION
                        
                                 Widespread (east of the Rocky Mtns.)
                        
                     HABITAT
                        
                                 Lentic-littoral
Lotic-depositional
Lotic-erosional
                        
                     Lotic-depositional
Lotic-erosional
Diagnostic Characters
               order
                         
                                       
                                       
                                    Legs Absent
                                 family
                         
                                       
                                       
                                    Head Retracted in Thorax
                                  
                                       
                                       
                                    Posterior Spiracles with Lobes
                                 
                  + Expanded Character List
                  
                     
               
            
                        Order:
                           Wings and wing pads absent. Eye spots sometimes visible, but compound eyes absent. Segmented legs absent, but sometimes fleshy prolegs present. Sometimes with distinct head, often without head or with head drawn deeply into thorax. Body flattened, cylindrical, or maggot-like.
                     
                     
                        Family:
                           Mandibles moving against one another along an horizontal or oblique plane. Hardened head capsule always deeply retracted inside thorax; often with length-wise incisions of varying depths beginning at posterior margin of head, and extending forward; in extreme cases head consisting of only several slender rods (visible only via disection of thorax). Spiracles absent (apneustic) or with 1 pair at posterior end of body (metapneustic); posterior spiracles rimmed by 2–7 (usually 5) lobes often fringed with hair. Mature larvae usually 10–25 mm long. 
                     
                     
                        Genus:
                           swollen 7th segment of abdomen, spiracle plate usually 4, abdominal segments without creeping welts, blades of maxillae not projected from retracted head
                     
                   
                   
            Dorsal
               Ventral
               


