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Old 29-08-2004, 12:32 AM
Magwitch
 
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Chris Hogg muttered:

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 08:29:02 +0000 (UTC), Lynda Thornton
wrote:



Nobody so far has identified this creature - I can say it's not any of
the following that I've seen befo beefly, hornet, ichneumon (I've
seen various ichneumons) and it doesn't have an ovipositor visible -
it's mainly dark brown in colour and has a pointed body like a wasp or
bee but no sting or anything on view. It has no yellow on it. It isn't
a hoverfly like any I've seen personally or on the web and in my view
it's too big. I can only guess that it's some kind of fly but I've
never seen one so huge, and it's dark brown with paler bands striped
across which has the look of a bee of some kind, but I've never seen one
that looks like this. Perhaps it's some strange european visitor or a
weird mutation!

I'm happy to see any more suggestions but it looks like unless I get
some kind of photo I'm stumped.


An alarmingly large fly is the warble fly, Hypoderma bovis (is this
what you call the beef fly? It's a serious parasite on cattle so may
be). Another big one is the Sheep nostril fly, Oestrus ovis. But
neither really fit your description either in colour or shape. They're
just dirty great big flies, fly-shaped, fly-coloured.


Would it be a horsefly? They seem to like being around water. Watch out -
they bite!