Large Unidentified Flying Insect

[JamesWhitehead]

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? :?:

 

[Pietro_Mercurios]

Some sort of wasp, or flying ant?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Shame about no piccies.
A drawing, perhaps?

 

[Spookdaddy]

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.

 

[Heckler]

cockchafer,.

:lol:

Damn you man you owe me a keyboard, I filled this one with coffee from my nose.

I now have another excellent puerile description to file alongside Fartknocker and Butt-Spelunker.

 

[Spookdaddy]

cockchafer,.

:lol:

Damn you man you owe me a keyboard, I filled this one with coffee from my nose.

I now have another excellent puerile description to file alongside Fartknocker and Butt-Spelunker.

Well done - I was convinced escargot would be first up to the line.

For once, though, I wasn't allowing my chronic pun syndrome to get the best of me - I really did wonder if it could have been a...well, you know - one of them.

(I dread to think what response cockroach might get - remind me never to smoke a weed with you.)

 

[David Plankton]

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

 

[JamesWhitehead]

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! :shock:

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

 

[Dingo667]

Shame on you for stomping on it, especially if it was that big.
Didn't it deserve to be caught and let out?
Humans

 

[David Plankton]

Cicada perhaps?

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

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

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

Oh hang on......

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.

 

[titch]

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.

 

[Vardoger]

Also called LUFI.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

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.

Were 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! :?

edit: horrid old "where" for "were" error corrected long after the offence.

 

[Spudrick68]

We have just come back from Crete yesterday. I have included 2 photos of a truly huge hornet we saw (I assume it to be a hornet). It was about 1.5 to 2 inches long.

But when I look on Google to identify it I can't seem to find it. If anyone on here is good at identifying such things I'd be interested to know exactly what it is:

 

[Mythopoeika]

Solitary wasp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_wasp
https://www.west-crete.com/dailypics/crete-2008/6-21-08.php

 

[EnolaGaia]

The markings seem to be those of the European mammoth wasp.

Megascolia maculata maculata
Megascolia maculata (also called Scolia maculata) is the largest European solitary wasp.

https://www.west-crete.com/dailypics/crete-2008/6-21-08.php

The mammoth wasp (Megascolia maculata) is a very large wasp (the largest in Europe), with the female reaching up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in), whereas the male is smaller. The species can be seen in warm weather, from May to September.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_wasp

 

[Spudrick68]

Thank you for your replies.

The yellow and orange banding on the abdomen was what I could not match.

 

[Coal]

I got 'buzzed' by a (UK) giant wood wasp a year or so back and it startled me somewhat, I've never seen one before. Big devils (4cm) although peacefully inclined.