I never realized that I was surrounded by cannibals. No, I did not discover a pile of skulls or a string of shrunken heads, but almost every time recently that I have gone out into my local marsh, I have spotted Red-footed Cannibalflies (Promachus rufipes).
These insects are big and they buzz as they fly by me, so they are hard to miss. I have read that they are vicious predators, but I had never caught one red-handed with prey (or perhaps I should say red-footed) until yesterday. I can’t quite identify the prey, but it looks like it might be some kind of small bee. If so, it wouldn’t bee too surprising, given that one of the nicknames for this species in the “Bee Panther.”
I know that I shouldn’t be worried about these cannibals, but a slight chill went through me yesterday when one of these insects landed on the lenshood of my camera and looked up at me, looking very much like he was sizing me up
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Beautiful and macabre at the same time. Very nice.
Thanks, Ben. I should probably save posts like this for Halloween.
Ah, the stuff of horror movies. Add a little radiation, the Cannibalfly grows 100x his/her former size and off you go Mike.
I haven’t heard of these (or our more common robber flies) attacking anything other than other insects, and that’s quite reassuring. They’re bigger than horse flies and I know all to well what their bites are like.
Wonderful photo! – how big are these?
I think these are about and inch and a half long…pretty big, but not exactly enormous. However, there are some reports of one of them taking down a hummingbird.
I can really see one of these taking down a hummingbird. They really look vicious.
Everyone has to eat, but this guy makes me happy that I’m not on his menu.
Now that is one lovely macro. I saw a video of one (different species, but giant fly) killing a hummingbird on the net a long time ago. Charlie should Google it.
It’s a beautiful picture but I feel a little sorry for the poor bee.