Firefly

I regret I didn't taken a picture of the specimen! My housemates were so freaked out because they thought it was a roach that I had to move it quickly. If I see another one of this size, I'll be sure to snap a photo to verify. I did see a smaller specimen of this type, about .5" last night.

Hey guys, I just saw a mature adult specimen of this species the other night in Playa Guiones. The specimen had to be at least 4 inches in length! We all freaked out because of the resemblance to a cockroach. After I let it out of the house, it flew around a bit in the yard, but I didn't observe any flashes of light. The coloring was unmistakable though. Here is a link to an academic article about the species that was published in 1986 by some researchers based in Puerto Rico: http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/58171/55850

Maybe you find some reports from your area. The match is quite good ;-) http://eol.org/pages/1173852/maps http://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-17153.htm http://bugguide.net/node/view/498379 Note the longer white patch at the side. In many others these patches are less extending: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/50286033 http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/10180840

Possibly Aspisoma sp.

Some kind of firefly, actually, family Lampyridae.