Looking for a bug

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one_raven said:
I saw some type of fly today and was looking for help identifying it.
I live in the lower Hudson Valley in New York.
It was a fairly large fly - about an inch long.
When it landed, it tucked it's wings to make a triangle shape, similar to a moth. So the widest part of it was about the same length as the longest part.
It was a dark, pewter gray in color.
The wings were the most extraordinary part - they looked like they were made of stained glass. The different sections of teh wings were separated by what looked like leading. Some sections were transparent and some sections were black. The wings were all shiny.

That's about as much detail I got before it flew away.

I've never seen a bug like this before, and was hoping it sounded familiar to someone.
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This?

deer_fly_Chrysops_1.jpg
 
raven said:
It seemed much more substantial than a moth.
I heard it land on the wooden fence. It was heavy and hard.
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Moths like that are heavy and hard - they aren't fluttery and butterfly like; they carom and bang on windows.

There are many kinds of clearwing moths.

And their wings often cover their backs when they sit, unlike most flies, and the small hindwings might not be obvious.

But they don't land on things like wooden fences very often, that I know of. That is fly-like, solitary bee like, wasp like, or maybe ichneuman like, behavior.
 
one_raven said:
....Holy shit! Look at this beast I came across while looking at moths for the wing shape:
Cairns-WebWide-CP16MAY08P003-CC097771-MOTH.jpg
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That is beautiful! :) Thanks for posting it.
I thought bugs only got that big when there is a lot of oxygen in the air. Where the heck is there that much oxygen in the air???
 
Orleander said:
That is beautiful! :) Thanks for posting it.
I thought bugs only got that big when there is a lot of oxygen in the air. Where the heck is there that much oxygen in the air???
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No, you are confused with prehistoric times. Bugs got very big back then presumably because of higher atmospheric oxygen and higher temperature.
Those insects dwarfed the moth in that picture.
 
Orleander said:
so bugs in higher oxygenated areas aren't larger than bugs in Tibet?
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Hum probably..
You are turning it around though. At high altitudes the oxygen level is lower.
I would think that the rainforests have a higher oxygen level than average.
It might have some effect but it can't be much.

Also, it's colder up high.
Rainforests are also warm so in theory you should find the biggest insects there. There's also a lot of food around there.
 
sorry, I don't think my question came across right. I know Tibet has less oxygen. So aren't bugs in the jungle larger?
Its a temp thing? Why? Heat gives them a longer life cycle so they have time to grow larger?
 
Orleander said:
sorry, I don't think my question came across right. I know Tibet has less oxygen. So aren't bugs in the jungle larger?
Its a temp thing? Why? Heat gives them a longer life cycle so they have time to grow larger?
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It's temperature and oxygen levels.
Why oxygen levels have an effect is obvious.
It's because they don't have lungs but instead have a system of tubes and sacs, oxygen either diffuses into the system or is actively pumped around. The system is only efficient for smaller body sizes.
Insects are cold-blooded so their metabolism needs a higher environmental temperature to function properly. Higher metabolism is more growth, simply put.
 
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