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Help identifying weird insect

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  • 24-08-2012 10:29pm
    #1
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭


    I was wondering whether any of you on here could help me identify a small insect that gave me some real bother today.

    Earlier in the afternoon I kept feeling like something was on me in different places, like a mild itch. I thought nothing of it because everytime I located the itch there was nothing there. A couple of hours later in the corner of my eye I noticed a little insect on my arm - as soon as I went to swat it away it moved at lightning quick pace. I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and could see it on my neck, swatted it again and it was gone before I could get near it. What was so unusual was that it didn't fly, just moved to another place on my body, it just kept on me

    As you can imagine i was getting a little freaked out at this stage. I kept trying to find it and then eventually I located it in my hair (:eek:) I was 100% sure I had totally crushed it and that it had fallen to the ground. But then later during dinner I felt the same mild feeling of something being on me and sure enough I saw it again on my arm. After another panicky trip to the mirror I really got it this time and a large amount of blood appeared when I swatted it on my skin........But then :eek::eek: it just kept moving no matter how many times I squished it - at the time I didn't get a chance to see what it even looked like because it moved so fast from place to place. It was like something out of a film, even though it didn't feel like it had a tough outer shell or anything it was remarkably intact by the time I really did finally kill it (despite all the squishings and blood that had came out!).

    It is now sitting on my desk and I've been hesitantly looking at it in a magnifying glass, half thinking it will just come alive again!

    Sorry for that unusually long introduction but it has really freaked me out and now I have come on here to ask your opinion. If you guys can't identify it from my description i'll post some pics up in the morning:

    - It is small, like only 1-2cm long. I presume it was bigger given the amount of blood that came out of it.
    -It has a dark greenish body.
    -It was transparent wings (therefore not a tick? that was the only thing I could think of because I know they're supposed to be hard to crush). But remember, when it was on me it didn't seem to fly at all, just rapidly crawl.
    - It has 6 'legs' - two longer ones crooked at the back, two middle ones and then two at the front which are shorter.

    It doesn't look like anything remarkable or 'foreign' but it's behaviour was so mind-boggling (it has really freaked me out, going to be checking my wardrobe and bed thoroughly after this!) that I have to know what it is.

    Thanks in advance.

    *ps I am genuinely not taking the p*ss here, even though it is a Friday evening.


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    #2
    Mothman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    Flea?
    though I wouldn't have thought they'd be hard to crush, but I've never tried. I don't know what else would be so quick moving.

    Show us the pics.

    BTW your post reminded me of this:D
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdP56nipKW4


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    #3
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Mothman wrote: »
    Flea?
    though I wouldn't have thought they'd be hard to crush, but I've never tried. I don't know what else would be so quick moving.

    Show us the pics.

    BTW your post reminded me of this:D
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdP56nipKW4

    :D

    Oh god please don't tell me it's a flea, that would *really* scare me to death! I thought they were miniscule anyway and not as big as this.

    Here are some pics:
    P1140814.JPG
    P1140816.JPG
    P1140821.JPG
    P1140824.jpg
    P1140812.JPG


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    #4
    Mothman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,498 ✭✭✭Mothman


    Ok not a flea...

    Its not really in its original condition for ease of ID. Couldn't you have taken photo before beating it to death ;)

    I'm guessing some kind of horse fly.
    I doubt I can help further.


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    #5
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Mothman wrote: »
    Ok not a flea...

    Its not really in its original condition for ease of ID. Couldn't you have taken photo before beating it to death ;)

    I'm guessing some kind of horse fly.
    I doubt I can help further.

    I was so disturbed by it that murder was the only option, it had been on me *all day* and could not be caught or crushed :pac:


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    #6
    Dave0301
    Registered Users Posts: 2,473 ✭✭✭Dave0301


    Can't help with identifying it, but I am now here breaking out in spontaneous bouts of itching after reading the OP :o


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    #7
    aidoh
    Registered Users Posts: 620 ✭✭✭aidoh


    I think it's a picture of an exploded bed bug. Are you sure it had wings?


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    #8
    Timfy
    Registered Users Posts: 725 ✭✭✭Timfy


    I hate to be the bearer of itchy news but that certainly looks like a squished bed bug to me... :eek:

    No trees were harmed in the posting of this message, however a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.



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    #9
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Yes it definitely had translucent wings, one of them had been taken off by the impact - the remaining one is visible clearly on a couple of the pics. I have looked at pics of bed bugs and can't find one that looks like the one that was on me.

    I think it's gonna remain a mystery :(:mad:

    Also, I think it would be too big to be a bed bug?


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    #10
    Ziphius
    Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Ziphius


    If it (originally) had two wings than it's a fly. Possibly a horse-fly -- which do bite. But not a bed bug.


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    #11
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Don't think it's a horsefly, I deal with them fairly regularly out in the fields and I am familiar with their behaviour. This one was just so damn fast (it scuttled along my skin remember, a horse fly would fly away when swatted) and unbelievably hard to kill, way harder than a horsefly.


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    #12
    Ziphius
    Registered Users Posts: 714 ✭✭✭Ziphius


    Unusual behaviour for a fly alright. That it only has one pair of wings suggests it's some kind of fly (order diptera) although it is difficult to tell from the pictures. Alternatively it could be a beetle or bug, some members of these groups also only have two wings. If you can still remember the details an identification key might help.


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    #13
    Tiercel Dave
    Registered Users Posts: 797 ✭✭✭Tiercel Dave


    Have this one. Usually get them on Rooks etc., anybody that shoots has probably seen or felt one. A 'Flat Fly'!
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippoboscidae
    Regards, Dave.


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    #14
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    Tiercel Dave wrote: »
    Have this one. Usually get them on Rooks etc., anybody that shoots has probably seen or felt one. A 'Flat Fly'!
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippoboscidae
    Regards, Dave.

    Brilliant, only came across your post now because I was reminded about this fly recently. Stealthy (unsettlingly so) little buggers!


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    #15
    rc28
    Registered Users Posts: 2,246 ✭✭✭rc28


    This video shows exactly the behaviour I experienced - they are pure evil!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGgEybfPXy4


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    #16
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Mothman wrote: »
    Flea?
    though I wouldn't have thought they'd be hard to crush, but I've never tried.

    I've tried, and they ARE hard to crush. They have very flat bodies so squishing them is very difficult as the job is mostly already done...






    Not that I deal with them regularly, mind you :o


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