Author Topic: Humongous bug of some sort (Read 3175 times)

Jonna · « **on:** July 12, 2007, 11:18:58 AM »

This morning I got buzzed by this huge bug that looks like it is half dragonfly and half fly with beetle legs. Here's a close up of it.

and here it is with the 5/8" garden hose in the picture so you can tell how big it is. It's waaaaaay bigger than any fly I've ever seen. When it takes off the orange backend really gleams.

Anyone know what it is? That butt almost looks like it has a stinger.

Sandyd · « **Reply #1 on:** July 12, 2007, 11:50:55 AM »

It is one butt ugly

looking thing. I wouldn't like the looks of its butt with the stinger hanging out around me.

Maybe it is a mutant.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #2 on:** July 12, 2007, 01:03:23 PM »

Yikes!!

MikeW · « **Reply #3 on:** July 12, 2007, 01:35:23 PM »

As much as I hate bugs, seeing the adjective humongous just made me cringe!

Mike

Reedman · « **Reply #4 on:** July 12, 2007, 02:17:57 PM »

Looks like a cicada. They have large red eyes,

Are their any 1/2" holes in your yard? They live underground for 7-17 years and emerge in the summer.

Cicadas won't hurt you, but females damage small branches when they lay their eggs. The adults are excellent fishbait!!

Esther · « **Reply #5 on:** July 12, 2007, 03:07:33 PM »

Cicadas wings are more down covering their bodies. http://www.cicado.com/ Did that make a loud buzzing sound? Was it a horse fly or deer fly. They are pretty big, and bite. I just Googled horse flies and I don't think that is what you had either.

thedahlialama · « **Reply #6 on:** July 12, 2007, 04:06:06 PM »

looks like some sort of wasp to me. a bit bigger than normal, but not so much bigger to be out of the question.

jax · « **Reply #7 on:** July 12, 2007, 06:43:12 PM »

This is the year of the 17 year locusts but that is not what it is. It has similar wings of a cicadas but there wings wrap down around there body more and they have bigger, bugged red eyes and no stinger. It has an appearance of a type of wasp too. I wondered if it was a mutant or possibly a juvenile of some sort. It isn't any kind of bug I would like to run into. Hope that was the one and only one you get. I'm going to look on the internet and see if I can find anything similar to your bug.

Reedman · « **Reply #8 on:** July 12, 2007, 07:47:33 PM »

Now that I look at the abdomen again, it is not a cicada. Don't know . . .

El Jefe · « **Reply #9 on:** July 12, 2007, 07:52:09 PM »

Cicadia... Nah those look ugly as all get out....

This looks like some form of Digger Wasp

or Mydas fly? http://www.invasive.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1455196

Kittyzee · « **Reply #10 on:** July 12, 2007, 08:15:57 PM »

I'm not sure...but if it kept buzzing you it was probably trying to land on you to bite. It looks like a horsefly to me, and they are a PAIN in the butt up here around the barns and buzz around my front porch when I'm trying to wash windows!

Jonna · « **Reply #11 on:** July 12, 2007, 08:33:24 PM »

Well, he wasn't really buzzing me he was just flying around the pond and anywhere was too close. He landed on the deck and was drinking water from a puddle, in that close up you can see what could loosely be called his tongue down on the deck.

I too hope that is the only one I ever see. Yuck!

There are a type of bee here that eats rose leaves and I believe they live in the ground. They look like normal bees though unless this was a queen or something.

Just so you know, I was using ALL of that 12x zoom to get that picture. I was not that close to it

karen J · « **Reply #12 on:** July 12, 2007, 10:02:31 PM »

I don't know, looks like a wasp/bee/fly of some sort. I looked in my big Book 'O Bugs, but didn't see anything like it. My thinking is more like Jax's- possibly a juvenile of something or a deformed individual.

Ha, ha, Jonna, I didn't think you seemed like a squeemish person, flying through the Mexican forests and all.

Cool bug and great pic, though.

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #13 on:** July 13, 2007, 03:23:05 AM »

Where's my can of RAID?!!!

jclements · « **Reply #14 on:** July 13, 2007, 05:34:40 AM »

I'm going with the above poster and saying it's something like a digger wasp. When in Florida, we had some major wasps swarming in our front yard. One dropped dead and I was able to identify it based on the University of Florida Entomology website. I printed out a fact sheet and gave it to the pest control guy. He found the nest in the ground and used a product called "Demon." It took 12 gallons to fill the nest!!! The reason we had them exterminated is because our son played outside and they did buzz by you when you're out, and he's allergic to some stings. I think this is the site I used to get the ID. http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/choate/insecpdf.htm

Good luck!

PondmaninAL · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2007, 05:33:42 PM »

Y'all are saying wasp or bee but the antenna say moth. The way that you described the way that it was drinking also sounded like a moth. Did it look like a hummingbird flying?

Scott

El Jefe · « **Reply #16 on:** August 06, 2007, 10:03:00 AM »

Okay I know this is old but it was bugging me

sorry couldn't resist. I asked and entomologist from the University of Texas to Identify it for me and he said that it is indeed a Mydas Fly. Now you know.......

Andy

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 06, 2007, 12:02:07 PM »

Never heard of a Mydas Fly.

I was going to guess Tarantula Hawk Wasp.

http://www.nps.gov/archive/moja/mojaantw.htm

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #18 on:** August 06, 2007, 04:21:16 PM »

Jonna has the Mydas touch....

Kittyzee · « **Reply #19 on:** August 06, 2007, 07:05:40 PM »

But those Mydas flies had orange wings and black bodies, and not an orange body with clear wings.....still looks like a horsefly to me

Jonna · « **Reply #20 on:** August 07, 2007, 12:10:17 AM »

I spent some time googling and looking for an ID back when I took the picture. I too came up with Mydas Fly as a good possibility. I sent the picture with an email to a web site "What's that bug" http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ but never found an answer. They seem to come in a lot of different color combinations but most have translucent wings and some orange on their body.

BTW, I saw what I hope was the same fly drowned in the pool about a week later. I didn't save it and I haven't seen another one.

That tarantula wasp doesn't really look like it but this is the area they live in. What a weird, gross bug life, kind of combines 2 really gross bugs in a horrible way. There are tarantulas around here, all over California really. I remember finding them in the pool when I was a kid, I don't know why they always seemed to fall in the pool but there would be one in there almost every morning in the summer. Down in the Yucatan there is a time of the year when the tarantulas mate and they all seem to congregate on the road. Driving at night you run over thousands of them, really gross... sure makes me not want to get out of the car.

El Jefe · « **Reply #21 on:** August 07, 2007, 05:56:37 AM »

There are many different types of mydas fly, and it took me some time as well. When I narrowed it down I asked an entomologist friend from UT and he confirmed it was a Mydas fly. They actually kill and eat many of the pests you don't want; The adults are predatory, feeding on caterpillars, other flies, bees and true bugs and even the occasional wasp. They also feed on nectar which many flies do. Larvae live in rotting wood and probably feed on beetle larvae. Flies do not sting, but they will probably bite if mishandled.

Andy

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 07, 2007, 08:45:27 AM »

I lived in Phoenix fifteen years and the only time I have ever seen a wild tarantula, was in New Mexico on a trip, once for 30 seconds, it crept into the light of a streetlight shining down on the ground from the dark right next to my foot and scared the crap out of me. Not afraid of spiders but it was huge and startled me.

They were probably in the pool because they fell in trying to get a drink. The scent of water would have drawn them in.

Horseflies do not have any orange on them. They look just like regular house flies but bigger.

I am sure the entomologist is correct just never heard of a mydas fly.

Mikey · « **Reply #23 on:** August 07, 2007, 11:35:45 AM »

I too spent time on a California site that identifies insects and I thought the tarantula hawk was the closest, especially in light of where you live, but I too dismissed it because the coloring wasn't right. It's possible that the photos on the web are of females and maybe yours was a male.

As a kid I lived in Riverside where I used to catch tarantulas by soaking a cotton ball in ammonia, place it next to their lair and then place a Mason jar over the hole and cotton ball. In about a minute's time the tarantula would come out and I would scope it up into the jar. When they calmed down we would play with them and let them walk around on our hands. Once calmed down they never behaved aggressively and I was never bit, although I was cautious to never pick it up but rather let it crawl onto my hand. I was told if you pick them up they will bite. That was at age 7 or so. I'm now 50 years older and I'm apparently not nearly as brave since I no longer would even consider handling one of those huge spiders.....

happyoutsidegirl · « **Reply #24 on:** August 07, 2007, 11:43:25 AM »

I don't know what it is either but I agree with Sandy, That is one butt ugly bug!

Kittyzee · « **Reply #25 on:** August 07, 2007, 05:55:54 PM »

Quote

Down in the Yucatan there is a time of the year when the tarantulas mate and they all seem to congregate on the road. Driving at night you run over thousands of them, really gross... sure makes me not want to get out of the car.

I just have an aversion to spiders..and very large ones to be exact. I don't know why because one has never bitten me, chased me, sought me out, hidden in my shoes or underwear, or chased my kids. Up here when it rains a lot the worms try to get away from the water and lay by the thousands on the road, but I swear I don't know what I'd do if I saw thousands of tarantulas in the road with my headlights shining on them. AAAAAAGGGGGGG!

perplexed ponder · « **Reply #26 on:** August 08, 2007, 04:58:42 PM »

Kitty-
I have a theory about that.......
I think I was a fly in a former life!!!

Kittyzee · « **Reply #27 on:** August 08, 2007, 06:42:45 PM »

Hmmm, now that's an interesting thought...

And I DO hate flies so much living on a farm...I was outside tonight trying to water and weed and work in the pond and they kept biting my ankles. Just like the cows they constantly twitch their skin and stamp their feet, I was starting to feel like that too

I recently cut my hair so don't have a very long pony-tail to switch the flies off my face either...