Neither snow nor rain not heat nor large menacing bugs stays these shoppers from their appointed rounds. When Mom, Grandmom and the kids had to make a stop a Lowe’s the other day, Grandmom stayed outside to give the kids a ride in a shopping cart while Mom ran inside. When the kids dismounted from the cart they discovered to their glee and amazement that they had been sharing their cart with one super sized (four-inch) bug with pincer-like mandibles.

The bug made quite an impact because I heard all about it when the shoppers returned — “it was looonngg! It was skinny! It had pinchers! It looked like if it was on a tree it would blend in.”

“Maybe some kind of walkingstick?” I offered, feebly.

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Uh-uh, Daddy.”

“Well, hmmm,” I said in my most authoritative naturalist-voice, “I’ll have to think about it.” And, of course, immediately forgot all about it.

But, as I mentioned above, the bug made an impact. And I kept hearing about “the bug.” So the other evening at dinner all the shoppers were there breathlessly recounting their narrow escape from the giant, alien flesh-eating bug from Mars.

“It was looonngg!”

“It had big wings.”

“It had big pinchers!”

“OK, OK,” I said. “Give me the description once more.”

“It was looonngg!”

“It had big pinchers!”

“OK, OK, I get the idea.”

I went downstairs to the computer and Googled “large bug with pincers.” Voila, up popped a Dobsonfly, a large — 4 to 5-inch — insect with large wings and large pincer-like mandibles.

I felt a bit vindicated about my feeble taxonomic effort as one of the descriptions stated, “Both male and female dobsonflies can reach lengths up to five inches (12.5 cm), measured from the tips of their pincers to the tips of their four wings, which, when not in use, are folded along the length of their ‘walkingstick’-like bodies.”

The pincers of the male Dobsonfly are noticeably longer (they can be up to an inch long) and more impressive than the female’s. And they are used to impress the females. I guess when it comes to Dobsonflies, size matters. The females retain smaller mandibles from their larval stage and can inflict quite a pinch, sometimes breaking the skin.

It appears the mandibles of adult Dobsonflies are used solely for attraction, mating and defense as most biologists agree that the short-lived (about a week) adults do not feed. The single purpose of the adult Dobsonfly is perpetuation of the species.

Dobsonflies are holometabolous, which means they go through a complete metamorphosis — egg to larvae, to pupae and finally adult. Dobsonflies spend the majority of their time (two to five years) as larvae. The larvae are aquatic and known as hellgrammites, a.k.a., toebiters, grampus and go-devil among others. Hellgrammites are grub-looking critters, generally two- to four-inches long with a leathery body protected by a hard shell at the head and collar. The hellgrammite is an active predator and the strong mandibles are readily employed — thus the toebiter.

When it’s time to pupate the toebiter leaves its watery home and generally finds a damp area under leaf litter or rocks or logs. The hellgrammite does not form a cocoon or chrysalis but pupates as a free-moving yellow grub-like critter with mandibles at the ready for protection. The pupal stage only lasts 2 to 4 weeks and the Dobsonfly emerges to mate and die.

The female will deposit up to 3,000 eggs in a cluster just above the water, where the larva hatch and fall in the water.

While it’s true that the fierce-looking male Dobsonfly is basically harmless, you might want to think twice about disturbing one as it can emit, “an irritating, foul-smelling anal spray as a last-ditch defense.”