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Mariah's avatar

What the heck did I see (insect)?

Asked by Mariah (18375 points ) July 4th, 2011

I’m sitting outside and I caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up just in time to briefly see what I think was a very odd insect. I’d say it was about five inches long, and very skinny. It was greenish-yellow in color. I would have thought it was a piece of grass floating through the air, but I saw it move in some fairly complex ways, and it’s not all that windy outside right now. For a moment I thought it was a dragonfly, but its body was curving like a sine wave, and I’ve never seen a dragonfly do that, nor have I see a dragon fly so long and skinny, and I couldn’t see any wings. I didn’t see it for long and couldn’t locate it after its flight. What the heck?

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15 Answers

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Walking stick??

Mariah's avatar

@lucillelucillelucille Maybe! Do walking sticks get that long? And can their bodies bend like that?

dappled_leaves's avatar

Too bad you don’t have a photo – maybe you can search through the index at:

uberbatman's avatar

@Mariah Where do you live? It will help narrow down what it could have been.

Mariah's avatar

@uberbatman Upstate New York!
@dappled_leaves Thanks!

gailcalled's avatar

“Here” is a similar question about a similar bug spotted in upstate NY.

Cruiser's avatar

Very often Dragonfly’s are aloft in pairs mating and clumsy in flight as you might imagine. Walking sticks afaict do not fly.

zenvelo's avatar

Could it be a mantid? They can fly.

Coloma's avatar

Must be some sort of walking stick I’d say.
I guess if it has evaded death and capture it could grow larger than average.

I have giant Millipedes around here, I have seen some monsters, easily 6 inches or more.
I figure they have just been lucky in life, like a 20 lb. trout. lol


I love that site!

Brian1946's avatar

Could it be a flying stick? ;-p

gasman's avatar

I’d vote for a damselfly, in the same order Odonata as dragon flies, but smaller and more brightly colored. They curl up their bodies like in this image when they mate.

Symbeline's avatar

I’m also strong on the damselflies mating. They look messed up when they mate and fly around. Thing is, everytime I saw that, I always see some kinda blurry wing movement, and I’ve never actually seen green ones. But I have seen bright yellow ones. Hmm…

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Nickyscissors78's avatar

I have seen these bugs 3 times…can never locate and the seem wingless but fly….one went inside a bamboo wind chime….it was floating and spiraling…..then went directly into the top of my chime…I went to look at it and it went far inside….I wanted to see if it had wings…was like string…seen 5–7 inches maybe more…yet friends have now witnessed…so I am not crazy….tried to search for images…..yet in ny and so far 3 siting this summer…one today….I do not see wings…yet it’s floating…bt cN go to exact locations….it’s cool to see and weird…what is it?

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