It's a monster!

[johnnyboy]

Thanks

Dobsonflies have been surprisingly neglected as an insect group, particularly the Asian species. Such weird, big and impressive insects and so little studied!

There seems to be most literature about the North American Corydalus cornutus, with details of life cycle which is likely to be similar to its Asian cousins. Corydalus and several Acanthacorydalis species do seem to have one striking similarity, the "dragon heads" pattern on the thorax. You can see it on the male in my photo, and in C cornutus.


Johnny

[lucanidae25]

All I know is they only have a very short window of time to ctach them, about a week and no more than 2 weeks in the summer. They alway come out at the same time.

They're so aggressive, they can bended their body 90 degree to try and bite you. Also it keep ejecting this gluey white stuff from its abdomen

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[johnnyboy]

That's interesting information. I've only caught a couple of female Corydalus sp. myself, one in Costa Rica and one big female C. armatus at a light trap in Ecuador. Not only did it try to bite me but it refused to die. I injected its body with ethyl acetate using a hypodermic needle near the thorax, it still struggled for 20 minutes afterwards.

So it seems that dobsonflies are aggressive in general.


Johnny

[lucanidae25]

I think that happens to me too, all the genus with that family dose it refuses to die. The longest struggles with one female A. fruhstorferi was more than 24 hours. I end up have to put another needle in the abdomen to stop it from moving.