I scanned through the posts and did not see this guy. Sorry if it's been covered.
He's about 5" inches long with a mighty big set of pincers. He nearly folds in half backwards trying to attack. So far as I remember, most insects with pincers this big don't actually hurt when they pinch you but I wasn't willing to find out. :)
Oh, the cream colored stuff on his back is chicken food. Sorry. My kids were flipping out and that was the first container handy.
I tried to get a better picture of it's rear end but it didn't go well. It appears to have a round opening in it's rear part. It did not appear to be more pincers but a hole through it's tail end.
Yuck, and it looks as if it could fly too...
((shiver))
This appears to be a male dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus; Megaloptera: Corydalidae). Their jaws are incapable of delivering more than a mild pinch, the females, on the other hand, with their much shorter but more powerful jaws, can give quite a painful bite - see http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/iiin/node/143
This is a Dobsonfly.They spend most of their life in the water.As larvae they are known as hellgrammites.I don't know about as Dobsonflies but as hellgrammites they do bite.And they pack a helluva wallop.I always assumed that was why they called them hellgrammites.
You are correct! That is my critter.
Poor thing is still in that container with a paper plate and coffee can sitting on top. I need to decide if it should die, be flung out into the field or?? Our land does sit fairly wet in places. We also have an ornamental pond. My biggest consideration is one of my six kids getting pinched by his wife. LOL
I would let him go.I don't think they are aggressive.Teach your kids not to try and handle them and I don't think it will be a problem.Like everything else it is here for a reason,if nothing else it will feed other critters.Just my opinion.
Dave
they look threatening... but the large mandibles are used to hold the female during mating. Like so many adult aquatic insects, their life is short... adult dobsonflies only live about a week... they do not eat as adults; mating is their sole purpose.
photo is a larval dobsonfly... a "hellgrammite"... a favorite trout food.
Thanks Dave.
My friends daughter needed more insects for her 4H project so I sent it home to her.
Michele
That really is a freaky looking critter too. I think I've seen them by my pond.
Thanks everyone!
When I was a kid my BIL would try to get me to catch hellgramites for him to use for bait.Yea right no way.I didn't mind catching crayfish but I wasn't going near these guys.
Brothers are nice that way. LOL
My little brother got one of my daughters to EAT a lightning bug...
My ex neighbors kids used to do face paintings with lightning bugs.
Ick! My mother said when she was little, they made earrings out of them and wrote on concrete with them. That would make me ill.
