Unidentified flying insect

jghunter · #1 (**permalink**) 15-07-2011, 11:35 AM

Hi, this is my first time here, it seems like a good place to ask. I have an insect I'd like help identifying. I've never seen anything like it. It appears to be something somewhere between a stick insect and a mosquito. It's quite large, with its wings standing outright from a very small abdomen, so it looks like a pair of 'antlers'. The wings, only two from what I can see but they may be two pairs close together, are opaque brown, very long and very thin (think helicopter blades). The legs are very much like mosquito legs but very 'thorny', with what appears to be spikes coming out backward from every joint, and even the legs themselves appear to be imitating a leaf vein. The whole thing is a varying brown.

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks

Jez

Jason Claxton · #2 (**permalink**) 15-07-2011, 11:39 AM

Hi Jez and welcome to WAB

It sounds like it could be one of the Plume moths.

Jason

jghunter · #3 (**permalink**) 15-07-2011, 11:45 AM

ah yes! Thank you, I found this photo and it's the one. Pretty creepy looking for a moth I have to say!

http://www.cilco.co.uk/stock-photos/...plume-moth.jpg