Found these in the garage the other day. Never seen one before. My younger brother is a veterinarian in Sugar Land and he told me what they were. He has a entomology background. My Dad told me that my Grandad used to to seine for the nymphs to use as bait in the Llano. Those things looked like some bad Mohicans of the bug world.

Male Dobsonflies look quite fearsome, with what appear to be tentacle-like appendages for mouth parts. The truth is, the males of the species cannot bite and are considered harmless to humans.

The females, on the other hand, can deliver quite a painful bite from her strong jaws if she is agitated.

Looks like you have one of each sex


Adult dobsonflies only live for about a week, it looks like they don't even need to eat. Instead, they spend most of their lives, several years, as freshwater larvae called hellgrammites. These have all the gills they need and strong (and short) pincers for eating the larvae of other insects.

Use to see them when I was young playing in the creek, they are pretty wicked looking bugs when the are flying around close

Good info, thanks. I saw my first one about 15 years ago when I moved near the Colorado River outside of Bastrop. I was intrigued by their size and fierce appearance.

Marc

Cool.

Nasty....just nasty.....

Yes..the males look intimidating but its the female that you should beware. Never used them but I hear the larvae are excellent fish bait....

I've seen these in the hill country, Brazos river basin and in my back yard in NE Dallas county...so I think you could encounter one of these just about anywhere in TX

I've seen billions of Hellgramites in my day. Never seen the adult version before. Thanks for posting!

I had a girlfriend like that, never could get used to her

We use to seine for hellgrammites in the Colorado river to use for catfish. They have a mean set of pinchers.

You gonna mount them?