The adult Dobson fly has a unique face that puts any zombie mask to shame. This critter may look like something from a horror movie, but they are beneficial insects.
Check out this illustration for unique costume possibilities for your next party or Halloween.
Mother Nature makes the best costumes or camouflage
This image is the face of the Dobson fly magnified.
Dobson fly head magnified
Both male and female of the eastern Dobson flies can reach lengths up to five inches (12.5 cm), measured from the tips of their pincers to the tips of their four wings, which, when not in use, are folded along the length of their walking -stick-like bodies. Their wingspans can be twice as long as their body length, and the wings themselves are densely lined with intersecting veins. Additionally, Dobson flies have segmented antennae similar to ants and wasps.
Found across the eastern side of North America east of the Continental Divide from Canada to Mexico near flowing streams where the larvae grow up. The hellgrammites are the larva and they live under stones or occasionally on snags where they feed on a variety of soft-bodied nymphs of insects like the net-spinning caddisflies and blackflies
The adults catch theri prey with the long pincers that extent out of its head. They are so strong if your finger or toe got pinched it might bleed.
Giant pincers of Doson fly
Dobson Fly adult
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfl
Excerpts courtesy of http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/eastern dobsonfly.htm
Image 1. (illustration) (left )courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Corydalus_cornutus_illustration.png
Image 2. (micrograph) (right) courtesy of http://i.livescience.com/images/ls_ugliest_dobsonfly_02.jpg
Image 3. (left) courtesy of http://lamar.colostate.edu/~secarney/AntCourse/133-BIG_Bug.jpg
Image 3. (right) courtesy of http://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/gallery41c5ff989c417.jpg
