[Tweetybird]

While my friend's daughter was over, she looked at my kitchen window and exclaimed, "What is that HUGE bug?" Thinking it was just some average bug, I was ready to shrug it off till I looked. It is some kind of humgonhgous fly. It has a green head, wings like that of a "regular fly", but much larger a dull fuzzy grey thorax and a dark grey and white striped abdoman. This thing is over an inch long. I measured it. I cannot believe how huge the thing is. I have it in a bottle and have tried to look it up on the net, with little success. Does anyone know what it is? It looks like it belongs to the order diptera, but that is as far as I get.

 

[redgreenbluegil]

Snap a picture if you can.
Could it be a striped horse fly? The link below shows pictures, and describes it as having a green head and a white stripe.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/4249

If that's not it, you might try going to the bugguide's home page and do a search.

 

[MaineFarmMom]

It might be a greenhead fly.

 

[Tweetybird]

http://www.insectimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1453014

It looks like its a Tabanus americanus, as it has the green head and is at LEAST a full inch long. I could not beleive the size of the thing. I have seen alot of other tabanid species as I had a college professor who did extensive studies on Tabanus lineolus and Tabanus nagritatatus (sp on both), so I saw alot of tabanid flies. He set out traps in the marshes and he even had his students come up with ideas for attracting and trapping them for study. He had a very dry sense of humor, and knew Dr. Watson and worked with him, as in Watson and Crick, the two men who discovered the double helix through ridio crystalophy, that makes up our chromazones. Dr Wall died a while ago from a stroke.

Thank you for the link as I had a hard time finding a good insect ID site. Thank you, now at least I do not feel like I am having delusions of living a scifi movie!