Posted in Bugs, Gardening, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, tagged Asilidae, Canon 55-250mm zoom lens, Canon Rebel XT, fly, insects, robber fly on July 30, 2012|
5 Comments »
My eyes were so attuned to dragonflies yesterday that my first thought when I stumbled upon this insect perched at the top of a plant was that it was a tiny dragonfly. The pose especially looked familiar.
The more I looked at it, however, the more I realized that the legs and winds were all wrong and the head, which in this profile shot looks a bit like a dragonfly’s, was really different. From another angle it sort of looked like a fly, but not any fly that I had ever seen. What is it?
I think that what I have here is a robber fly (from the insect family Asilidae). So far I have not been able to get any more precise in identifying this guy’s species. The description of robber flies in Wikipedia, however, is pretty. scarey.
“The short, strong proboscis is used to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis.”
Yikes! That description alone is enough to bring back flashbacks of alien movies and zombie thrillers.
I may not sleep well tonight.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Read Full Post »