Red Footed Cannibalfly feeds on Bumble Bee

bugman

July 29th, 2010 at 9:18 am

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Robber Fly Feeding
Location: North Middle Tennessee
July 28, 2010 9:38 am
Hi Daniel,
This big guy buzzed by this morning and landed in a nearby bush. I went inside to get the camera, thankfully it was still there when I returned. I thought you might like it for your food chain section. At first I thought it was feeding on a bumblebee but now I believe it may be a ”bee mimic robber fly”, not really sure. I was photographing a couple of robber flies yesterday that looked like this one except this one is maybe twice as large. So maybe this one is the Giant version. Thanks for all you do and have a great day.
Richard

robber fly eats bumblebee richard 300x286 Red Footed Cannibalfly feeds on Bumble Bee

Bee Killer eats Bumble Bee

Hi Richard,
You really are contributing some wonderful images to our website. It would seem you are well on your way to producing a guide book of insects from your area in Tennessee. We believe this is a Bee Killer, one of the Giant Robber Flies in the genus Promachus, based on images posted to BugGuide. The tiger stripe pattern on the abdomen is an identifying feature. Also, we are inclined to agree with your first impression that the prey is a Bumble Bee because it appears to have two wings on each side as opposed to a single pair of wings, a characteristic of the bee mimic Flies.

Ed Note: August 2, 2010
Today we identified a Red Footed Cannibalfly, and we realized that we now had a species identification on this beauty: Promachus rufipes.

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Richard wrote:
Thank you for your kind words, it is an honor that you choose to use some of my photos. I have taken away so much from you and your wonderful website, it just seems right that I give a little something back. Once again, Thank You for all you do.
Posted 29 Jul 2010 at 7:44 pm ¶