# Identify this insect
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2002, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860 "2002-11-08T08:59:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/1 "2002-11-08T08:59:03Z")
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.
[Here’s a pic of it.](http://www.guanolad.com/stuff/bug.gif)
Any ideas?
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.
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### Author:  [@Pythagras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pythagras)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/2 "2002-11-08T09:11:28Z")
Some brainstorming -
Queen Ant of some sort?
Exotic wasp? There’s some weird wasp species out there.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/3 "2002-11-08T09:13:09Z")
It was quite wide, not thin like I’d expect a wasp. However, it’s abdomen was hidden by its wings, so I can’t rule that out.
What do queen ants look like?
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/4 "2002-11-08T09:23:22Z")
Termite queen?
You’re in the subtropics there aren’t you?
Has it rained lately.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/5 "2002-11-08T10:23:29Z")
Subtropics? I am? No, I don’t think I am, am I?
Anyhoo, no, it hasn’t rained in about 6 weeks.
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### Author:  [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/6 "2002-11-08T11:39:51Z")
It sounds like you saw a cicada.
They come out of the ground at this time of the year in Australia.
There are green grocers, cherry nose’s … Yours sounds like a Black Prince. Have a look at…
[http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/February2001/default.htm](http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/February2001/default.htm)
And watch out one doesn’t get into your house, it can suck about 5 L of blood a day.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/7 "2002-11-08T13:43:45Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Coilean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coilean)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/8 "2002-11-08T15:12:15Z")
**Guanolad** ,
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](http://www.ento.csiro.au/education/key/couplet_01.html). 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.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/9 "2002-11-08T16:43:09Z")
Could it be a [hairy cicada](http://abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/February2001/cicada2.htm)?
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2002, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/10 "2002-11-09T02:03:13Z")
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.
I shall return.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2002, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/11 "2002-11-09T11:16:27Z")
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 shall investigate further…
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### Author:  [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/12 "2002-12-06T02:47:22Z")
I finally got around to asking my field scientist brother - he reckons it is a hatchling nymph mole cricket.
[http://molecrickets.ifas.ufl.edu/mcri0039.htm](http://molecrickets.ifas.ufl.edu/mcri0039.htm)
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/13 "2002-12-06T03:09:20Z")
Antlion, genus _Helioclisis_. Can’t find a good on line pic yet.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2002, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/14 "2002-12-06T03:11:40Z")
Whoops. Could also be a Dobsonfly, genus _Archichauliodes_.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/15 "2002-12-07T11:49:32Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/16 "2002-12-07T12:04:25Z")
I’m working from the book “A field guide to insects in Australia” by Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 1995.
The Dobsonfly photo appears to me to match your sketch, and the caption to the photo includes the text “50 mm long”.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/17 "2002-12-07T12:09:16Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/18 "2002-12-07T13:06:14Z")
The female apparently doesn’t have the mandibles, but [this](http://a1410.g.akamai.net/f/1410/1633/7d/209.133.64.45/insects_spid/insects_spid_l/IS0093_1l.jpg) 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.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/19 "2002-12-07T13:34:54Z")
In the photo I’m looking at:
1. the enlarged mandibles are absent
2. the antennae are shorter
3. color is slightly different, but that may just be lighting effects
Otherwise, they match.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-insect/135860/20 "2002-12-07T13:55:05Z")
I’m sorry **GuanoLad**. I should have pointed this out before. Even if you are satisfied with my identification, it could still be wildly wrong.
Without a photograph of your original animal, I don’t think a positive id is possible anymore. Your sighting was what, 3 months ago?
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