Gallinipper

This is a common name, or nickname, for Psorophora ciliata – a species of large mosquito (wingspan 7–9 mm), indigenous to North America east of the continental divide. It's known for its tendency for aggressive behavior – hence the common name, which is often prefixed by 'shaggy–legged'.

The Gallinipper is also a legendary creature in the African–American folk tradition. It's said to be a species of giant mosquito, so big that its bones could fence a 140–acre field. In a popular telling of the legends, the creature gets its bill out of a tree trunk, and is large enough to clear 140 acres of land during the struggle. Gallinipper tales were appropriated as a feature of minstrel shows, and have appeared in American blues songs such as Mosquito Moan by Blind Lemon Jefferson.

The gallinipper also gave its name to a sailing ship, built in 1833 (as the Nancy Dousman, and renamed in 1846), which capsized and sank during a rainstorm on Lake Michigan in 1851. The wreck was discovered in 1994, by a commercial fisherman whose fishing nets snagged on it, but remained unidentified until 2009, when the Wisconsin Historical Society carried out an archaeological survey on it. The ship's foremast can now be seen at the Rogers Street Fishing Village in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.