Hanging Thief

bugman

July 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am

Categories

Robber Flies

Loud flying wasp-mosquito-spider
July 23, 2009
Can you tell me what this is? Because I’m convinced that there is a mad scientist somewhere missing this experiment!
While coming home from work four nights ago, my brother in law accidently let this bug in. It flew in and went up our stairs making a VERY loud buzzing sound. He initially thought it to be a common Mosquito Hawk because of it’s erratic flying pattern, but then it landed long enough for him to get a good look and he discovered it was not. Hopefully it’s not some kind of killer bug because it landed on his head at one point!. We live in South Texas so we’re pretty used to odd bugs, but this one was weird enough to warrent an ID request. He was able to capture in a Gatorade bottle and I got out my macro lens for some closeups.
II included the best of the photos that I was able to take in hopes of an ID. It looks like a GIANT mosquito to me! Sorry for the last picture being so unclear. There were water drops left in the bottom of the bottle and given the thickness of the plastic that was the best shot I could get of it’s face.
It is brownish red in color, has a 3 segmented body, and it appears that all 6 of it’s legs were attatched at the middle segment. As I said before, it made a VERY loud buzzing sound and didn’t seem very happy to be detained! His face looked like that of a mosquito in that he looked like he could either draw blood or nectar with it. His eyes are huge and black and protruded from the sides of his head. From above, I think he looks like a wasp because of the wing shape and segmented body but the design on his back is strange, similar to a house spider. He even had black back hairs that you can see in the side profile picture! Gross! And he was a “sturdy” bug as well. I could feel it everytime he hit the side of the container! I was a bit scared of him so it was hard to take the pictures! He was so big I was just sure he was going to burrow through the plastic and get me!
Please help me figure out what this unusual critter is!
Just Wondering
South East Texas

: Hanging Thief

Dear Just Wondering,
Your brother in law let a Hanging Thief in the house. A Hanging Thief is a Robber Fly in the genus Diogmites. All Robber Flies are predators and the Hanging Thief gets its common name from its habit of hanging from one or two legs while feeding. There is an awesome photo on BugGuide that illustrates the feeding habits of the Hanging Thief. Hanging Thieves do not bite people routinely, but that is not to say that they can’t bite people if carelessly handled. We believe they are capable of biting, but we have never gotten a report nor read any accounts of it actually happening.