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Following the successful identification of the ground beetle larvae in a previous thread I thought I would try another. This will be much more difficult. (I think!).

I was in York a couple of days ago and spotted a critter I have never before laid eyes on before in my 52 years. It was sunning itself on the side of a green Land Rover. It was medium brown in colour, 6 legged, presumably capable of flight and its body & wings made a PERFECT T. It would hardly be half an inch long and half an inch wide. The body & wings which seemed to be rolled into a tiny tube were only about the thickness of a pin. The distinctive feature without doubt is the perfect T formed by the body & wings. It was so fragile looking it would make a lacewing look posivitively butch.

Any ideas???

MINESAPINT

Know this one. It's a ... errrmmm ... hang on ... back soon ...

My guess is Sympecma fusca - Winter Damselfly - they're brown and overwinter as adults (and have six legs)

marshlander wrote:My guess is Sympecma fusca - Winter Damselfly - they're brown and overwinter as adults (and have six legs)

My guess too.

Have a look at http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/syfus.html

Have to disagree, guys - the Winter Damselfly is twice the size of the thing Minesapint is on about. Still don't have an alternative, though. I'm still looking.

EDIT: Not enough info. I think I rejected the Tiger Cranefly just before I began to wonder about Minesapint's statement that this thing was "presumably" capable of flight, quickly followed by a description of its wings. C'mon Minesapint ... a perfect T? I've seen craneflies of about the right size, but ... Either tell us that we're talking about a plastic model, or give us a bit more to work on ..

Only thing about the damselfly is it is about the right colour.

No kidding about the perfect "T". I could not believe it. It was so perfect it did look like a plastic insect but there it was on the side of a useed Land Rover at the Land Rover dealership in York. The Land Rover was raised up on a framework which led me to assume it could fly although what must have been the wings did not look like wings at all. There was no head protruding beyond the wing line, in fact there was no identifiable head at all. I knew this would take some solving as I have never seen the like before. The size would be very much smaller than a lacewing, more the size of an ant.

MINESAPINT

As far as giving you more to go on. Really the only thing you need to know about it is its "T" shape. I have heard it said "there are no straight lines in nature". Maybe not but there are some perfect "T"s!

MINESAPINT

Knew I'd seen it somewhere ...

http://ukmoths.org.uk/search.php?entry=Pterophoridae++

Take your pick, Minesapint ...

Thanks MKG,

Yes must be one of those.

Emmelina Monodactyla looks similar although I would say too large but the distinctive "T" is definitely evident on many of them.

MINESAPINT

Common name - plume moth. Had loads of those in the house a couple of years back, striking with the T shape. Just looked at the UKMoths thumbnails, there is even a Y shaped one (if you ignore the legs)!

MINESAPINT wrote:Thanks MKG,

Yes must be one of those
MINESAPINT

Oh yes, how weird - don't think I've ever seen one!