Ok this guy/gal showed up on my deck about 2:00am last night. I go out on the deck many times at night so I would think it actually landed on my deck (flying at night?). It was flopping around in obvious distress and eventually died. I have never seen anything like it before here in south Texas.
I have looked all over the internet and have a couple of possibilities but have found zero pictures clearly identifying it.
1. Carpenter bee - Mine is longer and more narrow, easily 3 inches, covered in 'fur', has large 'lobster' claws and longer wings. It also has smaller claws but the larger ones are easily seen in the picture.
2. Mantid fly - They are much smaller, multi colored and lack the 'fur'.
Thanks for any info. Myself, my wife and several 100 Facebook friends are curious.
Any help would be great!
CLOSED: I don't know WHAT this thing is!
This is a robber fly (family Asilidae) in the genus Mallophora - it is known as the black bee killer.
See http://greglasley.com/nonBirds/mallophoraleschenaulti.html for another example.
That's got to be it. Thanks for the info! It's large 'claws' were throwing me off. Interesting read that it attacks bees and hornets.
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