This insect has a wingspan of about 1 inch - about the size of a common wasp. It was very slowly flying around my office and when it approached my face, I blew on it and it crash landed on my desk. Definitely not a very sturdy bug.
Do you know what it is?
dave
Big country big bugs. Thats the beauty of living in a small country like the UK!
I don't see a stinger on this one.......some kind of fly/hornet mutation???
"eyes"
More like Misquito
Mosquito was my first thought, but that big?
Dave it looks like an Ichneumon species but it doesn't have the long antennea. What color is the back side of the body?
Seems to be one of the solitary wasps Dave. Possibly a digger or sand wasp. The other possibility is some sort of ichneumon fly - (parasitic).
That's a lovely closeup. I like the hairy legs ;)
The bottom coloring is a brownish/reddish color. Does that make sense?
I'm wondering here what you mean by "bottom colouring" Dave?
Background? Underside? Backside/Posterior?...........
I've been having another look, but am rather hampered by only having a book that covers Britain and Western Europe
The length of leg seems to be more that of the solitary spider-hunting wasps that use spiders as food for their larvae. but i probably haven't got yours in my book :(
This message was edited Wednesday, Jul 10th 1:02 PM
it's not a wasp. the mouth parts are wrong.
the mouth parts look like our Cleg aka Horse Fly which sucks blood
This message was edited Wednesday, Jul 10th 1:13 PM
Thanks Mark, i was wondering about that. The antennae are wrong too.
Here has big mosquito also little one too, and it doesn't look like horsefly... down here has big fat body horsefly look like same to regular fly. Oh well maybe over there different kind horsefly skinny one and big so here is real fat and big. Talk about how bad it hurt when sting on my skin suck blood fast awful itch long time make swell. I hate this.
Some type of dragonfly maybe?
crashed and burned when you blew on it huh. Tic Tac anyone. rotflmao
Dave, it looks like a crane fly(some people call them giant mosquitos) They are good bugs and dont' suck blood, but eat other insects. It's too skinny for a horse fly. Here is a link http://mbgnet.mobot.org/fresh/slide/crane.htm
I was thinking that it was a Mosquito hawk, that is what we call them here. and I have always heard that they eat little mosquito's...but not for sure positive.
ROFLOL @Troy!!! I saw this post right after he posted it and I thought about responding to it, but hit the backspace instead..was going to say something on the same lines as you did. LOL Kinda like...I have 2 words for you Dave...Tic Tac!! LOL J/K Dave!!!
it's not a dragon/damselfly either as the mouth parts are different.
Mark
Large Male mosquito don't suck the blood small female mosquito does suck the blood for make the babies mosquito. Cala is right about large mosquito is good bug eat other insects!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.museums.org.za/bio/images/enb2/enb02436.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.museums.org.za/bio/ichneumonids/&h=171&w=184&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dichneumon%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN
http://www.greensmiths.com/images/shortt3.jpg
Do either of these look like it? There was one around my flowers all day. I can't find it in my insect book.
Kinda looks like it.......but not fuzzy or hairy.
"eyes"
Too thin, I think.
This is really "bugging" me. I will go look some more.
Was doing a google search, and it looks somewhat what they called a Cicada Wasp. Gonna look some more.
"eyes"
Nope..........the black & white drawing sounded like it, but this ain't it. Doesn't have a stinger, does it?
"eyes"
Can you get us a shot of his back side???
"eyes"
Dave, I think it is one of the many Robber Flies. Family: Asilidae. "Robber flies have big eyes and a sharp beak. The front of the face is usually set with bristles that help keep a struggling prey from damaging the flys eyes in the few seconds before the injected digestive chemicals take effect." - Excerpt from Florida's Fabulous Insects. One of the pictures in my book looks just like your insect. One thing these bugs seem to have in common is a humped back..does yours?
http://images.google.com/images?q=Asilidae&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search here are a few to choose from
Mmmm Floridian and Mark, they look likely. The fossilized ones are even the brownish/reddish colour Dave describes LOL
UFO
LOL! Welcome back Max!
That thing looks dangerous.
