My son came to me with a scary story: Dad, dad, a giant mosquito. And he immediately got a blowtorch so we could go kill it. He was scared. I immediately guessed what he saw. We call it a garden mosquito. I know it has nothing to do with mosquitoes and it doesn't bite.
So I had to explain to him that this is a good mosquito and that it won't bite ours. And at the same time, I had to research the very species of this garden mosquito of ours.
It was in a room that we don't use, our son sometimes plays there. Since the weather is warm and the windows are open, he wandered inside.
What I was able to discover about this mosquito is that it is called Tipula maxima and belongs to the Tipulidae family.
And it is also the largest representative of its family.
And I would say that this is our male because the females have a more elongated body and it looks like they have a stinger. It's actually the organ with which they lay their eggs. It's an ovipositor with which she drills into soft soil or moss to lay her eggs.
Since this is a good type of mosquito, while I was researching I had to keep my son close to me so he wouldn't kill him. And to convince him that this is a good guy. That its young (larvae) feed on decaying plant material, rotting leaves and moss.
We finally managed to get him to release this giant mosquito.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time.
Stay healthy.
Markone85.