Thanks for all the nature news! For some reason (maybe because I was traveling?), I missed the messages about the crane flies, so I was glad to catch up. That photo of the Pantophthalmus fly is amazing!
I've had my own little example of peculiar nature - my neighbor brought me a tomato (perfectly ordinary grocery store purchase) in fine condition except - it has little seedlings which have pushed through the skin to the outside! According to someone who saw it when I posted it on another site, it is an example of vivipary (basically premature birth!). "Vivipary occurs when the hormones that keep seeds dormant run out or become exhausted, either by the natural maturity of the fruit (over ripening) or from nutrient deficiencies."
Interestingly, though tomatoes are one of the vegetables/fruits where this is a most common occurrence, almost none of the 200-some people replying to that post had ever seen it. Considering how common tomatoes are (I probably eat at least 70+ in a typical year, and that's gone on for a lot of years - must be several thousand by this time), it seems surprising that more of us haven't come across them.
Read more at Gardening Know How: Tomato Vivipary: Learn About Seeds Germinating In A Tomato
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/tomato/seeds-germinating-in-tomato.htm