And You Though The TROPICS Got All The Bigguns....
Meet Corydalus cornutus. The Eastern Dobsonfly.
This is not a face anyone wants to run into. And that's BEFORE realizing 'Holy hell, that thing is five inches long!'
Males have oversized mandibles that can be up to an inch long. More on this later.
Bonus Humorous Video! Shows how Big, Nasty, and Harmless They Are!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GpXMBu3m6M
Dobsonflies start life as an aquatic crawly called a hellgrammite. These little predators spend their first few months of life eating other aquatic life before crawling up on land to pupate over winter.
The next summer, the pupae hatch and out comes the adults with one goal in their minds: breed.
Back to the male's huge, inch-long jaws. These are so oversized that they do not possess the leverage to harm humans. These monster mandibles exist to frighten away predators and hold onto the females while mating. Mostly the later.
However, the FEMALES with their short jaws CAN bite hard enough to hurt. Still, both sexes are more likely to display than bite.
After seven days of sex, the adults die. The night becomes safe once more, until next summer....
Info Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfly
This is not a face anyone wants to run into. And that's BEFORE realizing 'Holy hell, that thing is five inches long!'
Males have oversized mandibles that can be up to an inch long. More on this later.
Bonus Humorous Video! Shows how Big, Nasty, and Harmless They Are!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GpXMBu3m6M
Dobsonflies start life as an aquatic crawly called a hellgrammite. These little predators spend their first few months of life eating other aquatic life before crawling up on land to pupate over winter.
The next summer, the pupae hatch and out comes the adults with one goal in their minds: breed.
Back to the male's huge, inch-long jaws. These are so oversized that they do not possess the leverage to harm humans. These monster mandibles exist to frighten away predators and hold onto the females while mating. Mostly the later.
However, the FEMALES with their short jaws CAN bite hard enough to hurt. Still, both sexes are more likely to display than bite.
After seven days of sex, the adults die. The night becomes safe once more, until next summer....
Info Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobsonfly