A Robber Fly in the desert sand awaiting for its chance to pounce
The grayish-white color and the large pair of eyes allowed me to spot it on the reddish-brown sand
Land. Search. Target Locked. Take off.
The sun is up and it is beginning to get scorching hot outdoors. Heading back to the drop-off point, I observed a large grayish-white fly, resting on the reddish-brown desert sand. A Robber Fly landed just a few feet from my path! It is my first time to encounter a grayish-white Asilid in the desert. You can feel excitement heating up as I am focusing for a shot.
Robber Flies (ASILIDAE)
Robber flies are robust, powerful dipterans with sharp eyes, strong spiny legs, quick reflexes and agile flight capability. These true flies are fierce predators of other insects. They got their name from their behavior of pouncing on unsuspected insect victims. Literally "robbing the insects of their lives"! This is done while the insect prey is in-flight!
There are 7000 species reported to belong to the family ASILIDAE worldwide.
Biodynamics Notes
Robber flies wait on the ground, sand, stones and on branches of vegetation and scan their environment for potential prey. If an insect flies within its vicinity, it will reposition itself, assessed the situation and decides to lock or not on the target and attack. Once locked on its target, it takes off and pounces on the victim, grabs it with its powerful and spiny legs, lands on the ground or unto a branch, and then it pierces the victim with its sharp mouthparts. It then injects a venom which immobilizes the insect, which will start to digest the bodily fluids of the insect and allow the fly to suck-up its prey. (This is what you call intense predatory action)
Robber Flies pounce and attack: beetles, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, other flies, spiders and even dragonflies.
By the way, Robber Flies are also called ASSASSIN FLIES!
Awesome creatures! Awesome CREATOR!
The way of feeding themselves same as spiders. Inject the venom to disolve the meat of the insects? Who is the predator for these robber flies? Very interesting insect!!! Excellent job 👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and for sending your question. Robber flies are top insect predators. The only possible natural enemy that can prey upon these agile insects are large insectivorous birds (that is if they can catch the robber flies)!
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