half housefly, half dragon fly? what the heck did i see???

[xBurntBytheSunx]

ok i live in muncie indiana and i was accross the street from where i work and saw a bug i never saw before. the best way to describe it is that it was half housefly half dragon fly.

it was all black except for the eyes (they were red i think) it had big head, about the size of a horsefly head but was a bit thicker, like a big housefly head. it had big legs with visible v-forked toes/claws which reminded me of giant housefly legs. it had a thin body, but not extremely thin. shaped like a dragon fly body, not thick like a horsefly body would be. it had two long wings i think but am not for sure, not four like a dragon fly but shaped like dragon fly wings. the length of the insect was probably about 2.5"

does anybody have any ideas what this would be? my boss saw one also and we were both pretty curious, i told him i'd ask some experts so don't let me down

 

[Gigas]

I don't know alot about local American fauna but it sounds like a Robber fly

 

[Taceas]

Yup. That's the first thing that came to mind reading your descriptions. I've seen a lot of them down my way the past few weeks as well. Although to me, they look like giant skeeters.

 

[dtknow]

Ditto the first two.

When it is really hard to tell what the heck they are is when they've got some giant insect in their legs. I remember one that I couldn't make out what the heck it was until it landed and revealed it was a robber fly carrying a yellowjacket.

 

[xBurntBytheSunx]

i looked up some pictures, they looked similar but not identical...although i doubt there are many species...

i find it odd that i've lived here all my life and this is the first time i have noticed one.

 

[Gigas]

Well as i say im not to knowlegeable about your local fauna but maybe it doesn't normally occur near where you live, and there are quite a few species of robber fly

 

[Scolopendra55]

1 more for robber fly

 

[kahoy]

http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_flies/images/Robber15.jpg

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

i looked up some pictures, they looked similar but not identical...although i doubt there are many species...

i find it odd that i've lived here all my life and this is the first time i have noticed one.

There are actually many, many species, this page covers all of the Genera of eastern North America though, and a lot of species.
http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Robber main page.htm

Also, here's a picture of a Promachus genus robber I took locally.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h46/Scolopendromorpha/Flies/Promachus.jpg

 

[Arachnophilist]

AGREED UPON THE AGREEANCE.I will cast a vote on robberfly

 

[thisgal]

Ugh, I hate robber flies. They like to eat me.

....another vote for robber fly here...

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

Ugh, I hate robber flies. They like to eat me.

....another vote for robber fly here...

Are you a small insect? I've never seen robber flies bother people, in fact, they'll prey on a lot of the other species of flies that would, such as horse flies.

 

[KennyGee]

I think i seen one of them in my house before, it was loud and i was afraid to touch it lol, ill touch my centipede but not those lol.

 

[thisgal]

Are you a small insect? I've never seen robber flies bother people, in fact, they'll prey on a lot of the other species of flies that would, such as horse flies.

YES, I AM. Gosh.