A large insect and an ungainly flyer. We often see them attracted to our moth light, their uncoordinated flight making identification easy.
This is a female, as the males have feathery antenna. These critters are usually active at night, so I do not know why this one was crawling about on the cover of one of our deck chairs one morning.
While as adults they do not eat, and thus do not have any mouth parts, they still have some nasty pincers. And can inflict a bit of pain if mishandled. The males use their's for fighting over females. I've not been able to discover what the female does with hers, other than pinch unwary humans. Defense I suppose.
The females lay eggs on plant material above a still body of water. The larva then drop into the water upon hatching. Voracious predators, they live in the detritus at the bottom.
Other than the pinchers the adults are harmless and always funny to watch flying around lights. If you live in the continental US keep an eye out for them on spring and summer evenings.
🐞 🐞 🐞 🐞 🐞
You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.
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