The Daily Mail Australia website has published a bizarre story about a man “trapped” in a cave at Narooma by a swarm of unidentified flying insects.
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Man is attacked by a biblical proportion of bugs as he tries to leave a cave is one of the headlines on the article published on November 24.
It includes video of the man attempting to leave the cave but being forced back by a huge swarm of flying insects as his friends laugh hysterically. When he returns to the back of the cave, the insects appear to settle down again.
We’re unsure if he ever did manage to leave the cave or remains trapped by the insects, which one commentator on the website from Detroit identified as some form of “fishfly”.
Dr John La Salle, director of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and entomologist at the CSIRO, said it was unclear from the footage what species of insect it was.
They did appear to be relatively large, perhaps locust size, and there were not too many flying insects that were found in a marine environment, he said. He passed on the footage to his colleagues for possible identification.
Dr David Yeates, director of the Australian National Insect Collection and Adjunct Professor at The Australian National University, said they did seem a bit big for flies – the swarms he had seen were some sort of calyptrate but it would have been best to get some specimens.
Entomologist Dan Bickel from the Australian Museum said they did seem to be rather large.
“It would be nice to see some specimens – it is impossible to determine anything from those poor images. Perhaps someone needs to go to the cave and get some specimens,” Mr Bickel said.
The Narooma News is also unsure of where exactly this cave is in Narooma although it looks like it could be Mystery Bay or any of the other numerous coastal caves in the area.
Contact us at stan.gorton@fairfaxmedia.com.au if you have any idea who this was in the article, where the cave is and what kind of insects there are.