I saw a bug I’d never seen before the other day. But perhaps that’s not surprising, since I’ve not been in Sydney more than three months.
It was walking on the grass, looking kind of unwieldy as it clambered around.
It was about 2 inches long, and the bodyshape looked a little like a bumble bee, with its round leg parts, and its head shape - except it wasn’t striped, it was a plain grey. The body looked like it was fuzzy, or soft and mushy, though that may have been an illusion. It was long and thin with long wings folded behind its back, so long that they were dragging past it’s rear.
I wonder if there’s an online database of insects anywhere, where we can enter certain parameters (like size, colouring, region, etc) and it’ll show some pics to choose from. Someone should invent one.
I’ve seen cicadas plenty of times before. If this was it, it didn’t look like any of those on that page - it was a very pale grey - kind of the colour of that nymph emerging from the ground - only it had long wings, that weren’t attached to its sides, but on its top.
Well I tried, but wasn’t able to track down the specifc insect in question. However, I did have quite a time playing around with this key to the invertebrates. You enter the characteristics of the bug and work your way through entomological taxonomy. As I said, it mightn’t have your critter listed but it’s a step in the right direction.
One suggestion I would make is to ring your local museum of natural history or the entomology department of your local university. They’d probably be helpful.
It’s not a hairy cicada, but I’m going to take Coilean’s suggestion and visit the Australian Museum, which appears to have a great entomology department.
Okay, the Australian Museum wasn’t a lot of help, except for assisting in eliminating some possibilities. It wasn’t a Cicada.
I’ve narrowed it down to two maybes. Or one and a half.
Either it was a weird looking cockroach (which it might be, as I don’t know cockroaches very well) or it was a moth.
I saw many moths at the museum, and they sort of looked like a possibility, except I thought the bug had transparent wings, and it was a blue-grey colour, not a yellowy one like most moths. But it was a bright day, and I didn’t get a great detailed look at it - plus most other things match up pretty well.
I considered an Antlion. Looked at them at the Museum, but they definitely didn’t match up.
That mole cricket is one ugly mother, isn’t it? Looks a bit like a Weta, which is a New Zealand cave cricket, so I would’ve recognised that similarity. It sure didn’t look like that.
Dobsonflies, on the other hand… hmmm. That’s the closest yet, though I’m uncertain if they reach the scale I saw. If they do, and the colouration is right, you may very well have nailed it.
I’ve tried, but pics of the insects I’ve referred to just don’t seem to be available online. Go to a library, locate the widely available book I referred to, and check it out.
The female apparently doesn’t have the mandibles, but this is an american Dobson Fly, and I have to say it’s a pretty close match. I’m not absolutely convinced yet, but it’s around 80% likely to be the fellow.
