Dobson fly
Hi,
Just found your super website and lo and behold – there it was – the gigantic insect I’ve been trying to give a name to! It was a Dobson Fly. Gave us a real shock when my granddaughter brought a dead one over in a large pickle jar that her neighbor found on her back porch. It measured 6 inches from wing ends to tip of pincers! We photographed it with our digital camera and have been trying to identify it ever since. Seems it pinched a lady in the neighborhood. It’s funny that I lived in this area for 60 years and never saw one before. Enclosed is our pic. Keep up the good work!
Barbara Erney
Harrisburg, PA
Hi Barbara,
Happy we could be helpful.
¶ Posted 02 August 2005 § ‡ ° Interesting Bug
I’m assuming this is the male, given the extra ornateness; I got a picture of the presumed female, but unfortunately it’s very poor quality and she’s barely visible. I saw this fellow in a park nearby. He was crawling around, and headed toward me; I moved several times and he tracked me each time. I think he was just looking for something climb on – the female showed up a few minutes later, and he climbed up on the post that he’s next to in this picture, and arched his back and spread his wings, just holding the pose. He’s pretty good size – I’d say 5-6 inches, stem to stern. He had a couple of pincer-like appendages on his tail, of a fleshy material, similar to what’s on his head, but shorter. Unfortunately they’re folded under him in this picture. I have never seen anything like this. Any idea what it is?
Alan Little
Hi Alan,
Nice photo of a Male Dobsonfly. We were getting several letters a day in May and June and not so many in July regarding this fascinating insect.
¶ Posted 28 July 2005 § ‡ ° Dear Bugman:
Is the attached creepy bug a female dobson fly? It measures approx 4-5 inches from pincher to bottom of wings. We found in on our window screen early in the morning in early July. It appears to avoid daylight, and is rather docile. We live near Harrisburg, PA , approximately 2 miles from the large Susquehanna River. Thanks for any information you have. Regards
Joe
Hi Joe,
Beautiful and artful photo of a female Dobsonfly.
¶ Posted 25 July 2005 § ‡ ° Big Pennsylvania Bug
Hi Bug Guy,
This interesting looking guy welcomed me home tonight. It was just sitting on the front door and appeared pretty docile, not minding the flash of my camera or the tape measure. The pictures aren’t too good but I just couldn’t bring myself to get any closer to it. I just moved to Eastern Pennsylvania from New Jersey and had never seen anything like it. Thanks to your fantastic site, I learned that it was a male dobson fly, right? Also, thanks to your site, I no longer feel the need to pack up and move back to Jersey! Great site! I suspect I’ll be checking back here often!
Thanks!
Corinne
Hi Corinne,
We are so happy the site was helpful and want to thank you for actually doing the research on it. Your photo is pretty great.
¶ Posted 20 July 2005 § ‡ ° Our First Dobsons Fly !!!
Hello WTB,
My wife and I came home to this strange creature last evening resting on the inside of our garage door. We live in north central Iowa about 30 minutes south of the Minnesota border. Never seen such a frightening looking bug!!! Had no idea what it was!! We called our local nature center and they tried to convince us that that it was an Earwig. Seen too many of those to know better and the mandibles were on the wrong end anyway!!! I just wasn’t buying that so after a long while browsing the internet and every imaginable entomology sight we could think of we finally stumbled across your terrific web page and soon had the answer we were looking for. **** DOBSON FLY – Female!!!***** This girl measured 2 3/4" long from the tip of the mandibles to the end of the wings. The wing span was almost 4" when open. She had quite an attitude and would put on an amazing display of courage if you got to close. Sent along some digital photos for you. One of our local university entomology web sights described how to refrigerate the specimen for about an hour making very sure not to freeze her. This worked amazingly well to slow this fiery beast down so we could get some close-ups. The photos were done quickly and then we took her outside and rested her in a bush outside our living room window. She warmed quickly in the 80+ degree morning sun and was back to her marauding self in a matter of seconds. When last seen she was working her way deep into the center of the bush and when we checked this evening she was gone. Never seen anything like this in my almost 50 years of living in this area!!! What a amazingly horrifying treat she was!!! Your photos of the males are even more ferocious. Thanks for a great informational web sight. We will check back often.
Mike and Diane K.
Hi Mike and Diane,
What a wonderful letter. The female Dobsonfly is more aggressive than the male despite his formidible looking mandibles. Apparently his jaws serve some mating purpose that we can only cringe at. The female uses her more manageable mandibles not to eat, since adults do not eat, but to defend herself against anything that tries to eat her before she can lay eggs. Thanks for the great photos as well.
¶ Posted 12 July 2005 § ‡ ° Dobsonflie Closeup
Now that I know what it is here are a couple dobsonfly closeups.
Thanks David,
And they are great close-ups of a Male Dobsonfly.
¶ Posted 12 July 2005 § ‡ ° dobson fly
Hi,
We just found your site and found out that what we have is one of these amazing bugs! We let it go, but here is a photo from one that we saw down in northern N.J. last summer! We had no idea what it was until a friend recognized it as a Dobson fly! I had never seen one before in my 46 years! Great website!
Buggy in VT!
Thanks for the photo Buggy.
¶ Posted 09 July 2005 § ‡ ° Dobsonfly
Hello,
What a great site !!! I had to go downstairs to take a couple of pictures of this little monster that more or less presented itself to me after I dropped a tree with a chainsaw and was walking up the tree removing the branches afterward. This little monster just about wanted to kick my butt for crashing his world and came at me with tusks drawn! – LOL So here are a few shots to do what you’d like with 
Keep up the great site too !!
Eric
Thanks for the photo Eric. We are happy you both survived your encounter.
¶ Posted 08 July 2005 § ‡ ° 
rss
I like This
