General Question

Pandora's avatar

What kind of species (looks like a giant black fly) is about an inch long?

Asked by Pandora (32224points) July 7th, 2013
8 responses
“Great Question” (2points)

This is the second time I’ve seen a black fly in my yard. I first thought it must be some moth like insect but it landed near me and was gigantic. The whole body structure looks like a black fly. It was about an inch long and half an inch wide. It is not a horse fly or deer fly. Body and wings are pitch black.

Topics: , ,
Observing members: 0
Composing members: 0

Answers

zenvelo's avatar

Is it a bottle fly? Bottle flies seem huge. They’re only seen around dead bodies,whether rat, deer, human, or other mammal.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

It’s probably a cicada. Harmless and tasty!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

syz's avatar

There are more than 16,000 species of flies in North America, so we’re gonna need some more specifics.

How did you determine that it wasn’t a horse or deer fly? (You might want to try the BugGuide site.)

syz (35943points)“Great Answer” (4points)
Pandora's avatar

@syz Thanks for the link. It looked exactly like the second picture. I have seen horse flies before but they were never that large or pitch black. The eyes look weird too. It looks like a helmet. Nasty thing. So I guess it was a horse fly. Just never seen one that big either. Poor horses. Someone should douse them with deets. Those bites have to hurt as much as being stung by a bee.
I once got a bunch of bites from some large mosquitos along the beach that actually had you bleeding as they bit and it stung too. I thought it was the tall grass as I climbed over a dune. My legs were dripping with blood. Those guys are large too but this fly would look like the Hulk next to them.
@zenvelo @ARE_you_kidding_me @talljasperman , Thanks for trying but it turns out it was a horse fly. I had googled it myself but all I kept seeing was pictures of the horse flies I have seen before. Didn’t know they can look like a huge house fly.

ETpro's avatar

@Pandora I was thinking horse fly from the description as well. Let one bite you and you’ll KNOW they are nasty things.

gambitking's avatar

Could be a beetle, horse fly, cicada or a black wasp. Link us a pic will ya!

gailcalled's avatar

Check out the carpenter bee; it is large, black and deceptively scary, but it doesn’t (for the most part) sting.

Image

Image to scale

Text

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

Mobile | Desktop


Send Feedback   

`