iN VIDEO: Kelowna gardener gets close up look at a snakefly

Kelowna gardener Jenn Frost saved an interesting bug from her dog’s pool recently and then recorded it resting and preening itself on her finger, looking like a tiny dragon.

“I love bugs and don’t let them drown,” she said. “I’ve been watching snakeflies non-stop on my flowering cilantro this spring. This one stayed for a few minutes, it wasn’t in a hurry to fly away.”

Called a snakefly, the bug has an unusually long neck and head that curve like that of Ogopogo or the Loch Ness Monster, and it isn’t a snake or a fly, rather it is an insect related to lacewings, according to What’s That Bug.

Snakeflies have been around and unchanged for more than 50 million years and roughly 200 species of them have been identified around the world.

The insects are similar to the ones found in the Jurassic period with fossil records showing they once lived in tropical regions whereas today the insects thrive in colder regions.

Snakeflies are an important predator in the forest ecosystem and in orchards where they eat aphids, caterpillars, insect eggs and mites.

While the insect is territorial and predatory, it doesn’t typically bite humans and they are incapable of stinging.

Snakeflies get their name for their snake-like appearance.