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Project Noah Nature School
Family - Bittacidae
I spotted this near a street lamp the other night. This creature is quite large. It is about 2" or more in diameter including the legs.
Tropical dry forest in NW Costa Rica 9 weeks into the rainy season.
According to the list by the California Academy of Sciences there are the following species here in Costa Rica: Bittacus banksi, B. disternum, B panamensis, B. pignatellii, B. pollex, B. spatulatus, Kalobittacus demissus, K. inornatus, K ramosus, Pazius obtusus. I have included some on this list from Panama. There were none specifically on the list from Nicaragua. there are few to no photo references for any of the aforementioned.
Yes, Hangingfly! (new insect for me). Maybe it's this or similar:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/164221
hey Livian, it also has "claspers" on the tail which you can't see from this angle. I have a bunch more photos of this one but this one came out best and I haven't really processed the others. I will see if there is one with a better angle to see the body a little better.
I'm very curious to know what this is too. It's not a crane fly (or any fly) 'cause it has two large pairs of wings. I think it is a wasp of some kind (like an Ichneumon) but the wings are still throwing me off. They seem to have much more veins than wasp and the hind wing seems very large (but that can be the angle of the pic). But if not an Ichneumon Wasp, I don't know what else it can be ???
Spotted on Jun 24, 2012
Submitted on Jun 30, 2012
