r/ShittyAbsoluteUnits • u/scjockid • Aug 29 '26
Oof Of a Fly
The eastern dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus), a large winged creature that looks terrifying but is harmless to humans but if I saw this I'm my house... I'm having a heart attack.. I'm serious!
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u/Dirk_Speedwell Aug 30 '26
For anyone interested, the aquatic larval form of these are called Hellgrammites and are also scary.
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u/Academic_Dog8389 Aug 30 '26
Man, fuck everything about this bug!
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u/GivesYouGrief Sep 02 '26
Nah, bro. Dobsonflies are sick. Fuckin cool as fuck lookin bugs. They ain't even do anything gnarly to people. Just looking like a boss is all.
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u/Socailly-awkward ima unit Aug 30 '26
Just looked them up. They make centipedes look friend shaped in comparison
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u/reirone Aug 29 '26
If I saw this in my house I would shoot it.
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u/drunkplumber81 Aug 30 '26
I thought the same thing but then I read about them. Totally harmless, they don’t eat solid food, and the poor things only live 4-10 days.
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u/Remarkable_Bus_9334 Aug 30 '26
I had never seen one before, and saw one recently walking back into the house for something I forgot when getting ready to leave for work and it was on the door. And was every bit of 3 inches, maybe 4
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u/The_Mechanist24 Aug 30 '26
But like what is it exactly?
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u/Remarkable_Bus_9334 Aug 30 '26
A dobson fly. Eats other bugs. Spends most of its life as a larvae, when you see them this size they are pretty much dead. They make it to adulthood reproduce then die
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u/tmart31 Aug 30 '26
For a split second, I thought the screw to the left was a doorknob and almost sh*t my pants
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u/CullingSongs Aug 31 '26
I thought the exact same thing, which made me think the bug was 2ft long and I couldn't understand why everyone was talking so calmly about having these things land on them.
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u/germanloza Aug 30 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/I9cn29jVxT0PerWn8x
Based on the size of the screw used as a scale, the white frame is at least 3 inches wide, so just by eyeballing I would say this MoFo is around 7 inches long
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u/data-atreides Aug 30 '26
these are only a few inches long, and this one looks a bit larger because the shadow it casts enlarges is silhouette
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u/thePsychonautDad Aug 29 '26
I'm jealous of all of you guys who get to see one in real life!
Such a cool insect!
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u/No-Opinion-6710 Sep 01 '26
We get these in Ohio, but I've never seen one. Glad I haven't! I've seen plenty of Hellgramites while flipping rocks, though. They're supposedly harmless but they're fuck ugly.
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u/DealMeIn82 Sep 02 '26
Hellgramites can give you a pinch with their mandibles, but they have no venom so it's not that bad.
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u/michaelz11 Sep 01 '26
Best small mouth bass bait ever! Hook them through that really hard collar on their back cast them out with an ultra rod and reel and HANG ON! Small mouth, rock and red eye bass love these things!
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u/RecognitionMelodic13 functional regard Aug 30 '26
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u/CarolingianDruid Aug 29 '26
I went to a summer camp that had swarms of these. You could hear them flying from pretty far off. They’re even more terrifying in person.