Found it crawling on my screen. It is still alive and quite fiesty. Pinchers hurt like heck too. I tried to pick it up from above, and those pinchers swivel all the way back behind it's head. It is now on my neighbors screen--awaiting their nasty little kitten to come strolling along. Scanned it on my flatbed scanner--the lighter is to show scale. t actually has 2 sets of wings--one behind the other. They are folded in these pictures. When it flies, it sounds like a tiny helicopter. FHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Top side.
Bottom side
another
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09:00 PM
PFF
System Bot
ryan.hess Member
Posts: 20784 From: Orlando, FL Registered: Dec 2002
Sorry..forgot to tell you the REAL name..it is an adult Dobson fly, Don...and those pincers, as you say, can draw blood!! Nick Wooops!! too late now they are popular for fishing with
[This message has been edited by fierofetish (edited 05-30-2008).]
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09:54 PM
lurker Member
Posts: 12353 From: salisbury nc usa Registered: Feb 2002
Though both male and female dobsonflies have sharp mandibles, those of an adult male dobsonfly are actually so big - up to 1 inch (25 mm) - that they are unable to harm humans, as have such poor leverage that theyre incapable of breaking the skin.
I call on that part.
quote
They are used exclusively during mating, where males show them off and grasp the females during copulation. Female dobsonflies, however, retain the short, powerful pincers they had as larvae, so they can inflict painful bites, which can draw blood. Nonwithstanding the males' inability to inflict harm, when threatened, both sexes will raise their heads and spread their jaws menacingly. They are not poisonous, but possess an irritating, foul-smelling anal spray as a last-ditch defense.
Blackrams!! You see that undelined part? You sent this foul smelling, ugly critter with the Indy didn't you??
Ya know, I've only seen one of these things before, but they are cutting timber back by my lake, right down to the water's edge, so perhaps their activity has forced it to move from it's watery habitat and up to the front where I found it perched on the screen door.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-30-2008).]
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10:13 PM
blackrams Member
Posts: 32154 From: Covington, TN, USA Registered: Feb 2003
Originally posted by maryjane: Blackrams!! You see that undelined part? You sent this foul smelling, ugly critter with the Indy didn't you??
Wondered how long it would take you to find "Spike". He used to be a Hillary lapel stickpin. Wait, you only found one? Hmm, wait till they breed and that Underlined Part gets busy. You'll really be impressed. No, you don't need to thank me. Anytime.
Ron
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10:19 PM
sostock Member
Posts: 5907 From: Grain Valley, MO Registered: May 2005
Originally posted by maryjane: Ya know, I've only seen one of these things before, but they are cutting timber back by my lake, right down to the water's edge, so perhaps their activity has forced it to move from it's watery habitat and up to the front where I found it perched on the screen door.
Careful! An environmentalist group might catch wind of your destruction to their habitat.
Nope, just hadn't been up close to one lately. It will look better in a few days when they push the limbs and tops into piles on this 12 acre portion--then they move to the other side of my little lake and start again. They've hauled about 1000 tons of logs and pulpwood out in the last 4 days. Just hope the weather holds so they can get it all out before it starts raining. Still got 22 acres to go. Tunguska looks better than my property does right now.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-30-2008).]
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10:41 PM
May 31st, 2008
sostock Member
Posts: 5907 From: Grain Valley, MO Registered: May 2005
If you had 7 days to live, and before your new found look and wings, you spent a few years eating and swimming.. what would you do? I know I wouldnt be looking for food.. LOL
[This message has been edited by DjDraggin (edited 05-31-2008).]
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04:43 AM
Erik Member
Posts: 5625 From: Des Moines, Iowa Registered: Jul 2002
I mean if you are going to sew seed and put down nitrogen how are you going to get a tractor in there?
Stumps will be ground down with a stumpgrinder--it goes behind one of my tractors and runs off the pto. Most of the stumps I will leave. In this wet climate, the pine stumps will rot away fairly fast. The hardwood stumps will not rot fast--thus the grinder. I will not sow seed. The natural grass will come on really fast now that the pine trees are gone, and no needf or nitrogen for this area. But, considering I still have to clean, pile, and burn, I expect it will be 2 yrs before I see a really good pasture.
The main reason I had the timber cut was that the land was just useless to me as it was. In most places, the underbrush was so thick it was impossible to even walk thru the place, covered with brambles and vines. I will leave a 50 yd untouched buffer at the river, the full width of my tract--about 400 yds--for wildlife habitat, and that is what the forest service recommended. It's beneficial in keeping the river ecosystem intact, and prevents erosion during high water periods. I do not hunt, but the 2 family members that have the properties on both sides of me do, so that 50 yd thicket will allow deer to traverse the property in concealment from one property to the other. Deer have always bedded down in the thicket by the river, and I don't want to change that. I have the river as an East property boundry and the San Jacinto National Forest as a western property boundry, so I am morally obliged to do this as properly as possible, to have as little impact as is neccessary. With the trees gone from around my little lake, I also hope to attract more ducks in the winter. I have been asked by the forest service to put houses up in the remaining trees for a certain species woodpeckers, which are becoming endangered in this area, and I fully intend to follow thru with this. The local FFA builds and provides the houses per wildlife dept specs free to property owners. A good thing is, when I get ready to burn, the forest service will come out with their equipment and monitor the burning. They will bring bulldozers and firefighting equipment to keep the fires under control. I'm doing this with their full cooperation, blessing and help. Your tax dollars at work. I am not a cut, slash, burn type property owner.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-31-2008).]
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09:11 AM
fierodeletre Member
Posts: 834 From: Behind Animal's Drum Set. Registered: Oct 2006
Stumps will be ground down with a stumpgrinder--it goes behind one of my tractors and runs off the pto. Most of the stumps I will leave. In this wet climate, the pine stumps will rot away fairly fast. The hardwood stumps will not rot fast--thus the grinder. I will not sow seed. The natural grass will come on really fast now that the pine trees are gone, and no needf or nitrogen for this area. But, considering I still have to clean, pile, and burn, I expect it will be 2 yrs before I see a really good pasture.
The main reason I had the timber cut was that the land was just useless to me as it was. In most places, the underbrush was so thick it was impossible to even walk thru the place, covered with brambles and vines. I will leave a 50 yd untouched buffer at the river, the full width of my tract--about 400 yds--for wildlife habitat, and that is what the forest service recommended. It's beneficial in keeping the river ecosystem intact, and prevents erosion during high water periods. I do not hunt, but the 2 family members that have the properties on both sides of me do, so that 50 yd thicket will allow deer to traverse the property in concealment from one property to the other. Deer have always bedded down in the thicket by the river, and I don't want to change that. I have the river as an East property boundry and the San Jacinto National Forest as a western property boundry, so I am morally obliged to do this as properly as possible, to have as little impact as is neccessary. With the trees gone from around my little lake, I also hope to attract more ducks in the winter. I have been asked by the forest service to put houses up in the remaining trees for a certain species woodpeckers, which are becoming endangered in this area, and I fully intend to follow thru with this. The local FFA builds and provides the houses per wildlife dept specs free to property owners. A good thing is, when I get ready to burn, the forest service will come out with their equipment and monitor the burning. They will bring bulldozers and firefighting equipment to keep the fires under control. I'm doing this with their full cooperation, blessing and help. Your tax dollars at work. I am not a cut, slash, burn type property owner.
I expected nothing less.
I was just curious because I have never seen large section of land cleared like that. I've been watching "Axemen" and noticed they left stumps 3-4ft tall all over the place. When I have cut wood we would go back and shave off the stump as close to the ground as possible so nobody would run through on a 4 wheeler and kill themselves.
Now for the razzing!
What kind of worthless woodpeckers ya got down there? Too lazy to peck their own home? Have to have somebody build them a house? Are their peckers broke? Welfare for woodpeckers...our stain has polluted everything..
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07:11 PM
Syme Member
Posts: 410 From: London, Ont. Registered: Mar 2008
On a closer look today, I saw 2 more of the males, and a bunch of the small pincered females, in my yard, as well as a LOT of dried single wings--which I assume are from the ones who have already mated and died. All this time, and I have very rarely seen even one, and suddenly see a bunch of them.
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11:06 PM
Jun 2nd, 2008
blackrams Member
Posts: 32154 From: Covington, TN, USA Registered: Feb 2003
On a closer look today, I saw 2 more of the males, and a bunch of the small pincered females, in my yard, as well as a LOT of dried single wings--which I assume are from the ones who have already mated and died. All this time, and I have very rarely seen even one, and suddenly see a bunch of them.
Would that be an apology for that false accusation made toward me?
Well Ron, I guess so--but they did start showing up here after the Indy arrived. And you DID say this--didn't ya?
quote
Wondered how long it would take you to find "Spike". He used to be a Hillary lapel stickpin. Wait, you only found one? Hmm, wait till they breed and that Underlined Part gets busy. You'll really be impressed. No, you don't need to thank me. Anytime.
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09:28 AM
blackrams Member
Posts: 32154 From: Covington, TN, USA Registered: Feb 2003
Well Ron, I guess so--but they did start showing up here after the Indy arrived. And you DID say this--didn't ya?
[QUOTE]Wondered how long it would take you to find "Spike". He used to be a Hillary lapel stickpin. Wait, you only found one? Hmm, wait till they breed and that Underlined Part gets busy. You'll really be impressed. No, you don't need to thank me. Anytime.
[/QUOTE]
You took that as an admission of guilt? Someone has hacked my account! On account of, that's my story and I'm sticking with it.
Ron
[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 06-02-2008).]
on that part.
