Might be one of the earwig species if the antennae don't look jointed like the ant above. Earwig antennae look like they are made of lots of little segments. Google 'earwig identification' and see if that doesn't look like what you found.

This is no earwig. I've hated earwigs all my life and this guy is over twice the size of any earwig I've ever seen. Nothing on the end of the abdomen, and the abdomen is about 5/16" wide. I just put it on a paper towel and it looks like there could be wings forming on the top 1/3 of the abdomen, but if they are wings, they look like beetle wings and they are not separated from the abdomen yet.

I'll see if I can get a decent picture. I'll have to charge my camera battery first.

Now that I'm looking at it on the paper towel, I can see the antennae are moniliform, and not segmented in the middle, but curved.

I love crickets and get big camel house crickets here, but this is closer to a termite king with an ant head and thorax than anything I've found yet. And it's way too big to be a termite.

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2016, 08:08 PM - Edit history (1)

That's not what I have.

I called a local entomologist. My camera battery is still charging, but he wants me to send him a picture. I will post one here too. He may even want the body.

Maybe it's a new bug and they will name it after me?

Edited to say, I'm praying it is not a dragonfly naiad. I will never forgive myself for killing it first and identifying it later if I've killed a beautiful dragonfly!

Now that I know what it is, I'll quit bugging you.

stonefly????

They are too skinny in the abdomen. This guy has a big fat abdomen.

I won't be posting pictures. Photobucket is trying to give me a virus or malware and I can't get it to work right anyway...I am having computer problems and may be infected with crap already.

Sorry about that.

I'll let you know when I get an answer back from the entomologist.

I was hoping we had an entomologist here, but I guess not. Some good guesses though!

If you have a photo, you can also try doing a google reverse image search. If you don't know how to do that, I can give instructions.

Photobucket is screwing up for me and trying to give me malware. I actually uploaded the pics to photobucket, but cannot edit them for size to use here. Maybe I should try to just put them in origianal size? Is there a size limit for posting images here?

You gotta watch till the three and a half minute mark, at least. I feel sorry for the Mantis though. I don't think I would have let my cat do this.

That's Ralph.

R.I.P., Ralph.

Now I'll let the entomologist know I found Ralph.

Devil's Horse Coach

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15197882

They're on the west coast so it looks like a good fit.

Definitely looks like the same but. Doesn't look like much loss for the OP to have killed it.

Which I wasn't looking at before, because no wings...well it has wings, but they are very short and it doesn't look like wings.

It is similar to the Devil's horse coach, but it's called a short-winged blister beetle.



Thanks so much...I haven't heard back from the entomologist yet. I'll send him another email and ask him if this is it.

if so - it is a mixed animal...