I have a special love for this family of flies, who are all voracious, energetic predators (both as larvae and adults) and who all look like grumpy Muppet hobos. Robber flies in general tend to be large, with long legs, a long, tapered abdomen and a big, fluffy “beard” obscuring some pretty serious mouthparts. They…
Tag: Asiloidea
Stiletto Fly
About the size of a house fly but unaccountably much longer in the abdomen, with long legs, and in color resembling a flesh fly (red eyes, black and white striped thorax, black and white striped abdomen), this is in fact a stiletto fly, Penniverpa festina. You’d think something this big would have more than a…
Anthrax Argyropygus
This half-inch black fly with half-black, half-transparent wings is a bee fly (family Bombyllidae), which, of course, mimics a bee. Some members of this family look even more like bees, with striped orange and black fuzzy abdomens; many seem to have followed this theme of black and/or silver “fur” instead. You can tell this is…