Categories
Robber FliesTags
food chainFly, Dragonfly, Bee Killer wasp?
Location: Bismarck, North Dakota
August 7, 2010 1:39 am
I took photos of this insect today. It originally flew around my flowering basil, mimicing the bees, going from flower to flower. Then I saw it grab a bumble bee, to eat it. I wrote about it on my blog today: http://sewartfullyminded.blogspot.com/2010/08/bee-fight-and-bee-killer.html
At first glance I wondered if it was a dragon fly because of the long tail, but it behaved differently. It is fuzzy like a bumble bee but has such huge eyes. I followed it taking photos. It didn’t seem to like that and tried to evade me. It landed on the grape leaf and as I continued to take photos it eventually retreated behind the leaf.
Doreen
Robber Fly eats Bee
Hi Doreen,
This adept predator is a Robber Fly in the family Asilidae, and we believe, due to its size, that it is in the subfamily Asilinae, but we haven’t the time to research the species at the moment. You may view some possibilities on BugGuide.
I like ThisRelated Posts
-
(07/29/2008)Bee-Like Robber Fly eats Damselfly -
(08/14/2010)Robber Fly eats Bumble Bee -
(07/29/2011)Robber Fly eats Deer Fly -
(08/02/2011)Bug of the Month #2 August 2011: Bee Ki...
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.