Robber Fly: Family Asilidae

Somehow in the recesses of my memory, I knew that this was a robber fly. I always associated it with a painful bite and tried to steer clear of it whenever I saw it. On a recent vine cleaning detail, this robber fly chose to land on the trellis wire right beside me and stayed long enough for me to get a macro shot of it. When I went home and looked for more information on the Internet, I learned that this robber fly is a good guy, a predator. So far, on my tab Insect Pest and Predators, I only have 3 predators, the ladybug, the spined soldier bug and the anchor bug. So, I am happy to add the robber fly to the predator lineup.

I learned more about the robber fly on Wikipedia Asilidae. The Asilidae family members attack a very wide range of prey, including other flies, beetles, butterflies and moths, various bees, ants, dragon and damselflies, ichneumon wasps, grasshoppers, and some spiders. They wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight. Although humans are too large to be prey, the robber fly will not hesitate to defend itself by delivering a painful bite. This explains my association of pain with the robber fly.