Tommy Spinners
Submitted by Guest on Sun, 03/10/2004 - 11:38
I am wondering if you could help me. I am trying to find any information on a Dragonfly looking insect that comes into our house, around the summertime. My Dad calls it a Tommy Spinner, but I have found no such referance on the internet. I also havn't read anything about a Dragonfly or Damselfly that comes into peoples houses, around three or four if we leave the door open when it's hot.
The location is Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The insects are very dark, with very long legs, long wings and long bodies. They fly in an 'up and down' erratic mannor around the ceiling, and I believe they are attracted to the light. They are around 5cm long.
Tommy Spinner (sometimes called a Jimmy Spinner)
The insect you refer to is almost certainly a Crane Fly or Daddy Long Legs. It is a dipterous fly of the Family Tipulidae and is the adult of the Leatherjacket grub which causes such havock with lawns.
It is not to be confused with the Harvestman which is not an insect but which in some parts of Yorkshire this creature is called a "Daddy Long Legs" which is very confusing as the rest of the Country use this phrase to mean a Crane Fly. The most common members of this latter family in the UK are Tipula Paludosa, Tipula Juncea, and Tipula Maxima the largest of the group. They have two annual hatchings, the smaller ones appear about late April or early may depending on the weather but soon disappear, the larger ones T. Maxima appear about now, from mid August to mid Sept in Scotland and Sept to early Oct in England. They are however all killed off by the first frost. In the USA they are sometimes called "Mosquito Hawks" owing to their resemblence to a large Mosquito but they do not bite nor sting nor carry disease.
Crane Flies are not related to Damsel or Dragon Flies as they are true Dipterous Flies having only two wings and vestigial wings to balance them in flight called Haltieres. These look like little drumsticks behind the long wings and move at 180 degress out of phase to them to keep the insect in level flight by the gyroscopic principle. Dragonfies and Damselflies have 4 wings not 2 and are members of the Odonata not the Diptera.
i hope this is of use to you.
dragonfly
My house is absolutely full of them at the moment - I have never seen so many. Am using a complicated system of increasing intensity lighting to encourage them out of the bedroom at night as they keep waking me up :roll:
Tommy Spinner
Although it's some time since your original posting, I had to reply. In converstion with my Mother this evening, we discussed Daddy-Long-Legs (the name we always gave to Crane Flies). I remarked how my Grandmother always referred to them as "Tommy Spinners" - and I never knew anyone else who used this term. Searching the net I found this as the only reference to them. Very interestingly, my Grandmother was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire!
Tommy Spinner
Interesting. I just did a google search for Tommy Spinner(s) and it seems also to be a Yorkshire name for winged seeds such as a sycamore.
Tommy Spinner
And I thought the whole world called these creatures Tommy Spinners! I've argued with my kids and their friends (and a few of their Mum's) about Tommy Spinners all summer - and I couldn't find anything to help me on the net either, this is the only reference. Daddy Long Legs are small things with a ball like body and long legs, found in the garden under rocks - they don't fly. Tommy Spinners do. Nobody else seems to have heard of this name. I live in York, I'm 38 - I grew up in.....Bradford, West Yorkshire!
Tommy Spinner
No, no, no ;) The small things with ball like bodies and long legs are harvestmen and the dangly annoying flying things are Daddy Long Legs!!
Seems like a Yorkshire vs the rest of the country thing this!
I shall post some photos of Daddy Long Legs and harvestmen. Out of interest, the harvestmen despite seeming gangly weedy things seem to be able to tackle and eat big beefy spiders in my house.