Subject: What is it?
Geographic location of the bug: Southern California
Date: 08/22/2018
Time: 01:10 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hi, my sister sent me these photos of what looks like a furry dragonfly. I did a bit of research and found that it looks similar to a red footed cannibalfly…. what do you think?
How you want your letter signed: Astrid
Dear Astrid,
This is a large Robber Fly, judging by the ash seed used as scale, but it is not a Red Footed Cannibalfly, an eastern species. It looks similar to this Machimus species pictured on the Natural History of Orange County site, but we cannot state for certain that is a correct genus identification.