After looking through my reference books and a quick search on the net, I couldn't find anything that resembled this insect. Doug sent a few more photos with a little better look at the wings. Finally I sent the photos to Kao asking if anyone down at the visitor center knew what it was.
Here is what Kao said: The insect is a species of Deer Flies.
One of the things that bothers me is the size, the deer fly is a little larger than a house fly but we'll let Doug comment on that since he's the one that saw it in action.
I wonder why Doug chose to get so close :)
ReplyDeleteI was about 4 feet away with a 200mm lens. Besides it is a pollen or nectat eater so I wasn't really worried.
DeleteDoug
After doing some internet (Wikipedia and others) Kao and whoever at the meeting said it was a Deer Fly are correct. The females are the ones that bite but the males are pollen and nectar eaters. The size does bother me also Geri but I never did see and definitive sizes given (elephants are bigger than house flies)and maybe the males are bigger than the females just like mosquitoes.
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