Snakefly and Tips on Getting our Attention!!!

bugman

March 25th, 2008 at 12:00 am

Categories

Neuropterans: Lacewings, Antlions, and Owlflies

Strange dinosaur bug in Carmichael CA —–What could it be?????????????
Hi
I found this winged bug sitting on my car’s window this afternoon. It immediately caught my attention because -seriously- it looked reptilian. It’s colors were dark green, yellow and it had orange legs. It really looked like it had scales. It’s neck and antenna are long and it has a long tail too that I thought at first was a stinger. But the longer we looked at each other the more I started to doubt that that’s what it was. Anyway, as soon as I saw this little guy, I thought of you and ran back upstairs to get my camera. I’m sending you several images of it. Sadly, the image from the side is blurry -my camera just couldn’t focus. But I’m sending it anyway because you can still see the arch of it’s long tail. I know you guys can’t answer every email but please answer mine? This bug is just so pretty! And I really want to know what it is. The way it moved was just so graceful! It’s long neck seemed so flexible when it would bend and it’s little head was just so…let’s just say that it was checking me out as much as I was checking it out! It was so cool. Please help me identify it? Thanks so much! I love your site!!!!!!!
Jen in Carmichael CA

Hi Jen,
It is true that we cannot answer every email. We are not proud to admit it, but when we get swarms of emails, and our real lives cannot allow us the luxury to post to the internet, we delete many emails without even opening them. No subject in the subject line will most certainly wind up in the trash. You, on the otherhand, know how to catch our attention. How could we even try to ignore a letter that starts with “Strange dinosaur bug in Carmichael CA —–What could it be?????????????”? The answer is we just can’t. Another big pet peeve of ours is not including a location, and your letter even included that in the subject line. Catching our attention when we are scanning letters can be likened to a one sentence pitch for a movie script. You need to grab our attention and intrigue us. You Jen, did just that. Before we even opened the email and read it, we started to wonder just what bug you thought looked like a dinosaur. Well, this is a female Snake Fly. The tail is her ovipositor. Snakeflies are Neuropterans, and there are some other monstrous members in the order. Just take a look at our Dobsonfly page. Snakeflies are in the suborder Raphidiodea. Thanks for a descriptive letter that is fun to read, a catchy subject line, and a nice photo to complete the package. This is our favorite type of letter to post.