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September 13, 2005

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"It's a bird..... It's a plane..... No! It's Incredibeetle!!"

This monstrous bug, has been identified as a Giant Water Bug, or "Lethocarus Americanus". Thanks to some research by a scientist friend/subscriber from Ohio.

This huge insect is most commonly found in ponds and lakes and is not a scavenger, but actually a predator, and will feed on other insects, tadpoles, snails, and even small fish. They can also inflict a very painful bite on a human if handled carelessly. I guess I was lucky.

However, I am still curious as to what it was doing here in the middle of the desert, so far from any water source.

While walking back to my house, late one evening, I was slightly distracted by a large flying object, as it fluttered through the air in a random pattern, eventually striking me in the back of the head. Upon turning around I quickly noticed it taking off again and circling the front porch area. Looking somewhat like a bat as it flew, I had no idea what it could have been at the time. But since the light was on the front of the house, it directed its course towards that, slamming into the side of the house and then falling down to the floor of the porch, where I watched it begin to climb up on a chair that I had placed outside. 
I observed as this monstrous beetle climbed up to the arm rest and made another attempt at flying, and like it had some psychotic agenda, it landed right onto me again, right onto my chest, frightening everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours, right out of me. I quickly jumped back and immediately brushed this massive insect off of me before it could have a chance to even begin to devour me. As I knew it could, and most certainly wanted to. The look of death and hunger was clearly seen in it's eyes.
It landed on a rug that I had draped across some other furniture where I could analyze it further. As you can see it is quite the menacing-looking creature, with very large, sharp, dagger-like mandibles that I know could have easily penetrated my skull.
This creature was approximately 2.5 inches long and about 1 inch wide. I took numerous other pictures of it, as well as some direct, close-up, head-on shots, where it definitely looks like an alien creature of some kind. Not that I really know what an alien creature would even look like in the first place. But it was obviously not from this world.
As I originally thought that it resembled some type of water bug, on some major steroids or possibly mutated from direct exposure to gamma radiation. 
Of course, being in the desert, I have no clue what it was doing here, unless it was on some extended migratory route form coast to coast.

In any case, this bug was quite large and very frightening and creepy, and I sure hope I never see another one flying around. Because, if I do, I'm calling in the Air Force. Although I'm sure, by that time, they would have already picked it up on radar and launched some type of aerial interception.

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