Leather Jacket: AKA Crane Fly Larva

Subject:  Found in a creek water fall???
Geographic location of the bug:  Folsom, California (summer)r
Date: 06/18/2021
Time: 04:43 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  OMG! Founds this in a creek while camping in Folsom and it looks like some horror movie leech! Please know what thos is s I I can breath easy and be able to go back in the water here.
How you want your letter signed:  Sicerly, Michael Del Carlo

Leather Jacket

Dear Michael,
This sure looks to us like the larva of a Crane Fly in the family Tipulidae, and you can compare your individual to images posted to Trout Nut, an anglers’ website.  Here is a BugGuide image.  We first read the common name Leather Jacket for Crane Fly larvae in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin by Charles Hogue.  Though it somewhat resembles the “graboids” from Tremors (see Monster Legacy) we assure you the Crane Fly larva is perfectly harmless.

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