Last week on a wave runner tour I felt a mild stinging and when I looked down at my leg I saw a gray colored large bug biting me. I freaked out and swatted it before figuring out what it was, and it was gone before I could get a good look at it. It left little fang marks on my leg in two places, and I didn't think much more about it... after the jetski though I was exhausted and shaky, and figured it was the heat, etc. The next day a black "bruise" covering the entire top of my foot appeared, and after closer examination, I had two fang marks in the center of it. The bruise is healing up, but now I'm wondering what this bug was.

It was a flying bug I think, and it wasn't a spider or a mosquito... I've been looking into this since I've been back, and I'm not finding anything... anyone have any thoughts?

Could have been a horsefly. They have a horrible bite and are large. I would imagine the bruise you had probably was from slapping your leg so hard trying to get it off of you! We have been in lakes before and had horseflies after us!

Horse flies (Tabanus spp.) larger, about 3/8-1 1/8" (10-30 mm) long; color usually gray or blackish, wings usually lacking dark areas but some species with wings entirely dark, eyes often with horizontal stripes; 3rd antennal segment with a basal toothlike process; and hind tibiae lack apical spurs.They are pests primarily in suburban and rural areas where both their breeding sites of in or near bodies of water and mammal hosts are more abundant.

Thanks beachnut, you could be right, can you have a reaction from horsefly bites? I freaked out and swatted at it so fast I couldn't tell, but the bug was huge. The bruise was in a place I didn't realize I had been bitten, on the top of my foot. I originally thought I did it when I rolled my sandal on the beach... only on closer inspection did I notice it radiated out from the same type of fang marks I had all over my leg. When I got back home, my girlfriends took one look and thought I had been stung by a jellyfish. (THAT would have been a much less embarrassing story! :) )

It's been 2+ weeks and I still have some bruising and soreness, but it's almost gone. I never realized you need stuff like OFF at the beach... but I highly recommend it now.

From what I read about them and deer flies that also bother you at the beach along with dog flies, they can cause a fatigue type feeling! My husband and I couldn't even be out on the beach 30 minutes last year for the flies constantly biting us. And the Deet did not help at all! They say a deer fly bite stings but they are yellowish.