At first glance this insect looks a bit like a dragonfly, but if you look more closely you may notice that its wings and eyes are different from those of a dragonfly and its body is a lot hairier. I spotted this robber fly, a species commonly known as a Red-footed Cannibalfly (Promachus rufipes), on Monday while exploring a creek in Prince William County, Virginia. Red-footed Cannibalflies, as their name suggests, usually feed on other insects, but they reportedly are capable of taking down a hummingbird. Yikes!
A posting that I did in 2013 entitled “Red-footed Cannibalfly” amazingly has been among my most popular postings ever, with 3360 views to date. Apparently more people search for information about Red-footed Cannibalflies that I would have anticipated.
In case you are curious, my current most viewed blog posting is one from August 2013 entitled “Fuzzy White Caterpillar,” with over 6800 views, including 3219 views in 2024 alone. I do not consider that posting to be one of my best nor are the photos in it particularly good, but somehow the Google search algorithm likes it and I continue to get lots of views of that posting. In general, I do not put much stock in the number of views and/or likes of my posts and do not really give them much weight when considering the “success” of any of my posts.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Leave a comment