It's a beautiful summer day in Anytown, New Hampshire. You're walking through the town fair, enjoying the smell of corndog friers, the cheers from the ferris wheel, and the anticipation of the fireworks to come. You're holding your sweetheart's hand, and in the other you've got a fistfull of pink cotton candy.
Just as you lean in for a kiss, a Dobsonfly comes at you. It's a good four inches long, with massive pinchers. Its ungainly four wings carry it along, belly forward, on a collision course with your face. You screech and fall back, cotton candy and sweetheart forgotten in this onslaught of evil.
Dobsonfly: 1
Romance and humanity: 0
There are several varieties of this nefarious bug. The one featured here is the Eastern Dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus). Those mandibles on the male are harmless to humans (won't break the skin), as they are used solely for grasping the lady dobsonfly during mating.
Well, maybe romance didn't lose out entirely.
Thanks for the dobsonfly, Rae.
Apr 25, 2008
Love Is in the Air
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3 comments:
Eek!
Why NH?? (That's where I'm from) ...
I don't remember seeing many of those back when I lived there, and I grew up in a house in the woods ... Glad I didn't encounter them often!!
Hmm, I don't know what to say to that. Maybe you've been blessed with the anti-Dobson gene.
Dobsonflies are one of my all-time favorite insects. I find their faces irresistible.
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