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Posted: 12-03-2012 15:41 Post subject: Large Unidentified Flying Insect

I was in Southport at the weekend and found a large insect flying around my bedroom as I prepared for bed. It stunned itself against the door and I was able to step on it.

It was like nothing I had seen before. Though the body was crunchy and hard, when stepped on, the wings did not appear to be inside a wing-case and it had no antennae or horns so it was unlike any beetle. The wings were translucent and the body black. It was about two inches in length about an inch and a half wide. About twenty or thirty tiny mites were visible on the hard wooden floor around it, as if they had dropped off the body rather than been offspring ejected from within.

It was unceremoniously picked up with a tissue and flushed away. I thought I would be able to find something online that resembled it but I have drawn a blank so far. I am fairly sure it was not a native British fly. Any ideas? Question

Posted: 12-03-2012 16:06 Post subject:

Some sort of wasp, or flying ant?

Posted: 12-03-2012 16:11 Post subject:

Shame about no piccies.
A drawing, perhaps?

Posted: 12-03-2012 16:35 Post subject:

My first thought was that it might be a cockchafer, which can make a hell of a noise battering against windows and walls. However cockchafers have antennae and wing casings - although I think the wing casings can be virtually transparent, and might just look like wings on a crushed individual.

The Wiki entry for cockchafer (here) says that the males grow 25-30mm - but I'm pretty sure I've seen them a bit bigger than this.

Posted: 12-03-2012 17:50 Post subject:

Posted: 12-03-2012 18:14 Post subject:

Posted: 12-03-2012 20:28 Post subject:

Could it have been one of these? British Bumble bees are often infested with mites like you described, so maybe it was a Carpenter bee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylocopa_violacea

Posted: 12-03-2012 20:28 Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestions. There have certainly been reports of giant flying ants but I would probably have recognized an ant, having once had a nest of them in my kitchen! I don't think the body was segmented enough. It contained little in the way of juices and it was pretty tough, taking two or three good stomps to finish it off.

I'm sorry about the brutality but it stems from an irrational fear of such things. I wish I had made a closer study but I was quite sure it would be easy to identify later. Even if it was an overseas visitor, I have seen nothing that matches it.

I have read today that quite a lot of insects are infested with mites so their presence doesn't add anything useful. I'm not sure if I'm up to drawing it and I wish now I had taken a photo. The nearest things I have seen online are illustrations of fruit flies but they are typically tiny! Shocked

edit: It's not the bee, David. The wings tended to be longer and backward pointed - a more triangular fly-shaped thing.

Posted: 12-03-2012 22:27 Post subject:

Shame on you for stomping on it, especially if it was that big. Evil or Very Mad

Didn't it deserve to be caught and let out?
Humans Rolling Eyes

Posted: 13-03-2012 08:25 Post subject:

Cicada perhaps?

http://www.gpnc.org/cicadas.htm

Posted: 13-03-2012 08:30 Post subject:

Yeah, it's great that we can now study this amazing never-before-seen cryptid....

Oh hang on...... Rolling Eyes

I've got an irrational fear of spiders but I still manage to get them under a glass and out the door.

Sorry mate, I'm sure it was a spur of the moment reaction, but I still think a bit unnecessary.

Posted: 13-03-2012 16:34 Post subject:

Rule number one when dealing with rare or unusual creatures... DON'T SQUISH THEM INTO PULP!! unless it is some-kind of wasp, then it deserves it.

Posted: 20-03-2012 21:50 Post subject:

Also called LUFI.

Posted: 24-09-2013 23:40 Post subject:

The more I have thought about this mystery bug, the more convinced I am that it was a cockroach. I thought they were brown and did not fly but there are a number of reports online of flying cockroaches. That one is American, I know. I see from my original report that it had no antennae or horns, though, and most illustrations of roaches show them. Yet the hard body and external folded wings fit.

Where they mites that came out of the thing or possibly eggs she was about to lay?

I know, my scientific curiosity should have stayed my clumsy hoof but my brother might be glad it didn't breed - whatever it was! Confused