I saw it on the ground on the way home. It was at least five inches long, and brown. Had long wings flat on its sides and two long tusk-like horns out the front. I poked it with a little stick to see if it was alive and it popped right up at my face! I’m ok with most insects but this one was kinda big.
Where do you live? ID’ing a specific insect is made a lot easier if there is a specific location to go by.
It would help to know where you are.
Could it be a Palo Verde Borer? They’re pretty huge.
Rhino Beetle?
Check out this grub!
Oh, yes. Location would help. I’m in Pennsylvania.
Not a Rhino beetle-it was long and thin. The horns looked similar, though.
Not a Borer-the wings were transparent. It had long antenna and the horns. I took a picture with my phone but then remembered I can’t put those on my computer.
If not for the horns I would have said it was a mutated mayfly from Three Mile Island.
Looking at my picture, though, the horns MAY have just been an odd shadow from the antenna. It’s gone today when I went to go look.
Some kind of Dobsonfly?
Sounds like it might be a katydid to me. Some of them are brown. Their wings look like leaves. They have long antenna. So that’s my guess.
Maybe a Praying Mantis and you mistook the front legs for horns?
The dobsonfly looks similar, except for the chompers. Maybe it was an out-of-stater. Could have been a katydid except for the back legs.
I didn’t know Mantisis (Manti?) could come in brown. But it was lying flat, not up on hind legs. Wish I still had my digital camera. I’m not usually squeamish about large insects.
Not to hijack the thread, but I also have a “what bug is this?” inquiry: It was so cool, a friend an I hiked up the Superstition Mountains to the East of Phoenix, and when we sat at the top, there were these bluish beetle-looking bugs floating, just hovering in a single place, all around the air. We threw small rocks at one, and it’d keep dodging them and moving back to the exact same spot. It was crazy.
If the “tusks” are long enough, you don’t really notice the chompers:
YES! That was it exactly. Thanks very much everybody. Poor College Student, I hope your question gets answered as well. You’re welcome to use this thread or make your own.
Mantids do come in shades of brown, tan and yellow. I had a tan one as a pet for a while. I think it all depends on what they count on for camouflage in their species’ preferred area.
Holy shit that bug is clearly Hellspawn and must be destroyed.
Here’s another one: http://images.whatsthatbug.com/images/dobson_christopher.jpg
It sure is, which is why their larvae are call Hellgrammites!
You aint kiddin’! I’ve become used to my cockroach brethren here in Florida, but this bug would be annihilated on site.
