So, one morning, a few weeks back, I walked into my garden and saw this. If you can’t quite tell, it was emerging from some kind of cocoon that looked like it had been buried in the ground. Needless to say, I stifled a scream and slowly backed away, sure that thing was going to attack me.
But then, I went inside to get my camera. Because, yeah, I’m obsessed with taking pictures even when I’m thoroughly freaked out.
When I came back, it had finished birthing itself.
And had left its cocoon thing behind.
I searched and searched the internet but couldn’t find a definitive answer on just what the heck this bug was. That is until I stumbled on the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension page, where they have a form that you can fill out to ask an entomologist to identify an insect for you.
This is the answer I got:
The insect is one of the robber flies, insect family Asilidae. It’s adult coloration is not fully formed, but I think it is one of the “bee killers”: https://bugguide.net/node/view/6695/bgpage. There is some general information here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/6695. Robber flies are predatory on other insects and considered to be beneficial species.”
https://askanentomologist.tamu.edu/insect-id-form/
So, no it wasn’t going to attack me. Despite how freaky that thing was, according to A&M, he’s a good guy. Just a little reminder to get the facts before we go squashing something out of existence, right?