# Identify this spider-related incident **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816 "2005-09-02T23:05:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/1 "2005-09-02T23:05:18Z")
I came home to find [this](http://www.owainsutton.co.uk/images/wall.jpg) on my wall. What on earth is happening? Are they busy making babies, or eating one another, or what? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/2 "2005-09-02T23:25:40Z")
It looks to me like what you have there is not two spiders, but a spider which has captured a long-legged [crane fly](http://nature.berkeley.edu/citybugs/search/ident_images/IDed/Diptera/1375_Diptera_Crane%20fly.jpg). I only count 14 legs there, not 16 as you would expect if it were two spiders. It looks like the second animal is wrapped in silk. Can you see if it has wings? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/3 "2005-09-03T09:39:13Z")
Looks like you’re right. I left the situation alone, and this morning the spider’s still busy wrapping the thing up! ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/4 "2005-09-06T21:08:50Z")
As **Colibri** says, it looks like a crane fly, dinner for the spider. Somebody here mentioned [http://www.whatsthatbug.com/index.html](http://www.whatsthatbug.com/index.html) as a great resource; if you send the pic in they could tell you. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/5 "2005-09-06T21:19:59Z")
SPIDERS ARE CANNIBALS!! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/6 "2005-09-06T21:29:37Z")
Every Tuesday is Spider Day on the SDMB!!! ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/7 "2005-09-06T21:36:04Z")
Crane Flies eat mosquitoes. Anything that eats a crane fly (or, in the vernacular: mosquito hawk, dumb bug, daddy longlegs, etc) is therefoe evil and must die. You _did_ remember to murder the spider, didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/8 "2005-09-06T23:54:27Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Crane Flies eat mosquitoes. Sadly, they do not ( I’m all in favor of mosquito-eating critters myself ). The nickname “mosquito hawk” is a misnomer and probably stems from the views of people that think they look like giant mosquitos. But in truth they aren’t predatory at all - in fact perfectly harmless. Even towards mosquitos, more’s the pity. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-spider-related-incident/319816/9 "2005-09-07T02:48:40Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Sadly, they do not ( I’m all in favor of mosquito-eating critters myself ). The nickname “mosquito hawk” is a misnomer and probably stems from the views of people that think they look like giant mosquitos. But in truth they aren’t predatory at all - in fact perfectly harmless. Even towards mosquitos, more’s the pity. > > - Tamerlane When I was a kid in the Bronx we used to call Crane Flies “Jersey Mosquitos” in the belief that they were gargantuan skeeters bred in the Great Swamp of New Jersey.