[jasonseale]

The other day, a HUGE bug hit our sliding door; it was so big that the shadow of its approach seemed to me to be a large bee or wasp moving across the floor. This was on Vancouver Island in British Columbia; I have never seen anything remotely like this in Canada (I am over 40 years old, and pay attention to bugs... I love them). Ok, here is the description if you can help me identify it:

It was so big that if I spread out my whole hand, and it sat on my hand, parts of it would likely extend beyond the area of my hand... I am 6ft tall and wear XLarge gloves. It was mostly black or very dark brown, and gangly like a crane fly... Very long legs relative to its body, and two very long antenae; its body was as big or bigger round than a bumble bee, but longer; it seemed awkward, like it had blown against the glass, and as I got my best look at it, it spread wings like a beetle would... The wings were like a lady-bugs, seemed part of the body until they were spread. Again, an awkward but certainly effective take-off and it was gone!

My first impression size-wise was that it was bigger from foot tip to foot tip (side to side or front to back) than the biggest dock/wolf spiders that I have ever seen, but was no way near as stocky or solid looking as a dock spider. This was like some kind of crane-fly beetle, impossibly huge relative to the size of bugs I typically see in this part of the world.

Do you have ANY IDEA what this amazing but might have been?