eitthvert bögg

There's been a Mosquito Hawk sitting high on the front wall of this room all week. For three days it was over on the south side of the window. Since then it's been over on the north side. It seems in no hurry, and I have had plenty of time to chase down its name.

This animal is a Crane Fly, called also in my version of English (obviously) a Mosquito Hawk, but contrary to the common wisdom about Mosquito Hawks, Crane Flies do not eat mosquitos. However in another version of English, a Mosquito Hawk is a Dragonfly, and they do indeed eat mosquitos. Clearly the common wisdom cited above crossed a dialect boundary at some point before getting to me.

Vexatiously enough the Crane Fly has another troublesome name. At least in Britain, it is a Daddy Longlegs. This disturbs me, for I grew up knowing the Daddy Longlegs as the arachnid (but not actual spider) also called the Harvestman.

It gets worse. The Mosquito Hawk is also the name of a bird, a nighthawk also called the Goatsucker. Except that Goatsucker is the usual rendering of the Spanish chupacabra, which is an utterly different creature, one I am fairly glad is not sitting on my front wall, neither to the left nor to the right of the window.