Flying Rainbow Crawfish Thingy

You guys are gonna think Im making this up but I swear that Im telling the truth here. Now Ive only come across this insect on 2 seperate occasions in my life (Sucks..but I almost caught the damn thing) It has the same exoskelleton as a crawfish aleph0.clarku.edu... (of cource it doesnt have any claws, that would just be plain silly.:@@ Its about 3-4inches long has four wings like a dragonfly and a long stinger for its mouth that it uses to drink from flowers.
The weirdest thing though is that Its exoskelleton has sort of a rainbow effect to it when looking at it from a cetain angle, ya know..like gas.
Ive seen them in two different colours, the first I saw was green and the other had a pinkish sort of tint to it.. Weird or what?
First time I encountered this creature I was sitting outside on a sunny day watching my moms hummingbird feeder when this thing just buzzed by me and started drinking from it. The second time I was hiking in the forest and saw one drinking from a flower, I had a butterfly net and tried to get closer but it just flew away. I was so freak'n pissed you have no Idea. Now Ive been looking online at every bug site known on the internet to try and find a picture of this thing with no luck. I also went to an insectarium here and I couldnt find anything that comes close. It might be a rare bug thats never been seen before.. I dont know.

Has anyone ever seen such an insect before?

Maybe someone knows a crazy insect guy that can check this out for me. Im just fed up with people telling me it doesnt exist.. cause Ive seen it

[edit on 16-10-2007 by The_Crimson_King]

Are you sure it wasn't some sort of large Damselfly or Dragonfly? I have done research on Dragonflies before so I have experience with them and I can tell you that some of them are beautiful and shimmer and look almost metallic much the way you described what you saw.

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Maybe one of these?

Hummingbird Moth

Timesless you found it!!! I cant believe it, a Hummingbird mothJeez how come I never though of that. I was actually gonna draw a picture of it last night for you guys but looks like I wont have to I wonder if there are allot of these in North America?

heres a link I found for Hummingbird Moths... still cant believe it

72.41.49.149...

reply to post by The_Crimson_King


Glad we found it.

I think they've cropped up on here before. They're not that common in the UK but I've seen them a couple of times and they are seriously big moths which do, indeed, look almost exactly like hummingbirds from any distance.

No idea how common they are over there.

And just for the fun, i post this one too
The wierdest moths www.neatorama.com...

Awsome link man!! The White Witch Moth.. ok thats just wicked!

We had a lunar moth visit our house over the summer. Its wings span measured almost 6 inches across and flew the same manner a bat would fly. It scared the heck out of the kids until in landed on the side of the house and we saw what it was.

Okay, so the first time I saw the moth the OP is referring to, it literally made me want to vomit. It looked like some sort of mutant hybrid between a bumblebee and a humming bird. My husband absolutely thought I was pulling his leg until he saw it himself a few days later. It is definitely one of the strangest and most disgusting things I have seen in my garden. But cool too.

My humblest apologies for awarding your thread title the winner of my "Hall of Shame" award for most ridiculous. It does at least have a basis in fact unlike the reptilians. Plus, its scientific and I like threads that teach me something. Thanks!

No Prob..I guess I know what you mean, the first time I saw the Hummingbird Moth I thought the same thing myself. I was afraid to try and catch it cause I thought it would attack me and poisen me with some alien venom or something

[edit on 17-10-2007 by The_Crimson_King]