"BAC" wrote in message
...

"Lynda Thornton" wrote in message
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Hi

We have just moved to near the Welsh border in Shropshire - and on
moving day and since then we have seen some very scary large flying
insects which I can't identify. They look almost like a cross between a
fly and a bee and are mainly dark brown with paler brown stripes. They
have the triangular fly-wing shape but with a pointed end like a
stinger, but their heads look like flies. They don't seem to buzz
either, they must be well over an inch long, in fact probably 1.5
minimum and they are large and chunky and very intimidating! I've seen
a couple dead on the pavements in town too - I've never seen these
before and haven't been able to find them on the web - has anybody here
seen them and know what they are?


There are lots of species of drone flies, bee flies, wasp flies and hover
flies, even the bulb fly, which could match the description but not the
size. 1.5 inches is about 40 mm isn't it? Even the giant horse fly
wouldn't
approach that in size, and you'd certainly hear it in flight. How about
the
female giant horntail, urocerus gigas, which can reach 30 to 50 mm and has
a
long ovipositor spike looking like a giant sting? If it's her, she's
harmless, unless she mistakes you for a pine tree and tries to drill a
hole
in you to lay her eggs :-)

If you do a google search for images of urocerus gigas, you might see
something familiar.


I found a horntail in the greenhouse the week before last - never seen one
before but recognised it from pre-adolescent days spent looking at insect
books when I should have been getting a life - and the next day got a call
from the nieces about the huge insect they'd seen around their pine trees.
They even described it 'wiggling its bum' on the tree - laying eggs. Is this
just an exceptional year for them - like those ladybird years?

Michael S