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Project Noah Nature School
Laphria lata
About 34mm long. Eyes, large and black. Face, yellow and hairy. proboscis is black and prominent. Thorax is covered with yellow setae dorsally. Abdomen covered with yellow setae dorsally and black setae ventrally. Wings are smokey and held straight back at rest. Legs are black and apparently hairless, with prominent femurs.
Deciduous forest.
When I first saw this it was flying and I thought it was the largest bumblebee I had ever seen. When it landed I could hardly believe it was a fly. Maybe the largest fly I have ever seen. ID'd at BugGuide by Herschel Raney.
Spotted on Jul 4, 2012
Submitted on Jul 7, 2012
6 Comments
Heh. I'm not sure that's what they mean by "Velcro fly" ;) It's been my pleasure helping on ID's. I love to ID insects. Keep 'em coming.
Cool fly and a great shot on this guy! (I'm thinking ZZ Top.) ") Thank you for all of your help recently.
Forest, I think you are probably right. I have the image up at BugGuide, awaiting ID, but I'll go ahead and change it here.
Perhaps Laphria grossa:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/21056
I think they are one of the largest at 25-35mm. Bugguide.net says Eastern US as range, the map shows that they have been found in Nebraska:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/21056/data...
If you submit it to BugGuide.net, they can help you get the exact ID
very nice!