New Forest Flies

[auzzie]

Went to New Forest and bought back two (could be more!) flies, bugs, insects,beetle whatever. Cant find anything about them on the internet. I was wandering if anybody in that area knows what they are. They were mainly black with a bit of red or wine colour on them. They had a very hard type shell that protected their wings. The only way to kill them was to stamp on them and that didn't always work. They were quite long. At first we thought they were a type of horse fly but they were not blood suckers, so are not any type of tick either.
We have tried googling it but have not found anything like it. Any body any suggestions or sites with possible pictures so that we can identify it?

[Ice.Maiden]

Urgh! Was it one of these hun? they can also be all black, and nest at the foot of trees.

http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/image s/250/c_erythroc2.jpg

[auzzie]

Thanks for that Ice maiden, will show hubby when he comes back after the weekend