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.
Mike Powell 
It does look like a robber fly. What a great photo. I thought I was photographing a bumblebee one time, which turned out to be a robber fly-bumblee mimic. Check hiim out here: http://bybio.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/a-face-only-a-mother-could-love/
These guys are pretty mean looking, I agree.
What a great series of shots you had of the robber fly that looks like a bee. Apparently there are a number of different species within the family. Imagine the family reunions! Thanks for helping me learn more and more.
All of a sudden, aliens just don’t seem that scary.
It’s amazing how fascinating our world is when you start to delve into it.
Definitely a robber fly. They are voracious predators and worthy of the stuff of nightmares. I shudder even more, however, at contemplating family reunions.
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