Red eating bug
Location: French / Swiss border near Gex
August 1, 2011 1:52 am
Hello,
I noticed this vicious little beast whilst camping in France close to the Swiss border. I would love to know what it is. (And what it is eating!)
Signature: don’t care
From France: Assassin Bug with Prey
Dear don’t care,
This is some species of Assassin Bug in the family Reduviidae.
Japanese beetle eater
Location: Wakefield, RI near Providence, RI
August 2, 2011 5:45 pm
This large bug (over 1”) was seen sitting in our vegetable garden. It snatched a Japanese beetle from the air as it flew by, sucked the juice out of it, and then grabbed another! Awesome!!
What is it and how can we get more?
Signature: Ann in RI
Robber Fly eats Japanese Beetle
Hi Ann,
There is not enough detail in your photo to determine a genus or species, but this adept predator is a Robber Fly, probably in the genera Laphria or Mallophora. We just posted a higher quality image of a similar Robber Fly eating a Bee, and there was not enough detail to determine an identity, but you may read our rationale here. What we especially love about your letter is the fact that the prey is the invasive exotic Japanese Beetle, the scourge of many a gardener.
Thanks so much for your quick reply and helpful information, Daniel. We’ll try to get a better photo and maybe we can key it out ourselves!
Your website is really fun and informative.
Thanks again,
Ann in RI
Carnivorous bumble bee?
Location: Royal Oak, MI
August 2, 2011 2:15 pm
We have a honey bee hive in our yard and have been very bug friendly. We have cicada killing wasps in our driveway and we just steer clear of them instead of filling it with concrete.
Imagine my shock when I was hanging laundry out and saw one of our honey bees having the life drained out of it by what appears to be a bumble bee. Is it?
Signature: Jessica
Robber Fly eats Honey Bee
Hi Jessica,
We absolutely love your email, and we would like to wax poetically after we answer your question. This is a Robber Fly. It is one of two genera that both feed on large flying insects including bees and wasps that are captured on wing. Robber Flies are amazing hunters. They do not sting. They will not attack you and bite you, but they might bite you if you tried to pick one up, though we could not imagine how you would ever be able to catch one. We cannot, based on your photo, determine if this is a Bee Killer in the genus Mallophora, or a Bee-Like Robber Fly in the genus Laphria. One of the ways they can be distinguished from one another is the shape of the antennae. Your specimen appears to have antennae that end in fine filaments, a sign it is a Mallophora, however, upon enlarging the photo to better examine the details, your photo is not of high enough resolution to maintain image quality. Your individual does not have markings similar to any of the five species represented on BugGuide, which makes us wonder if it might not be a Laphria, and based on the photos posted to BugGuide, there are several species with markings similar to your individual. They seem to all have yellow beards, and it is not possible to make out the beard on your Robber Fly, though we are not sure if the black hairs are lost in the shadow or if the tasty Honey Bee meal is obscuring the beard.
Robber Fly eats Honey Bee
TO BE CONTINUED …
August 3, 2011
Hi again Jessica,
We are positively enthralled by the way you set the tone for your question by providing us with your bug friendly qualifications. We would like to take additional time to comment on your mention of Cicada Killers. We have devoted considerable internet real estate on our site toward lobbying for the preservation of Cicada Killers, and when we receive post-mortem images of them, we tag them as unnecessary carnage, but the fact of the matter is that we have never had to share our homes and yards with them. We really cannot claim to have experienced first hand the communal nesting habits of these large wasps. We applaud you for your tolerance and also for inquiring about this Robber Fly. Since we began working on this posting, we have received another unidentifiable image of a large Robber Fly feeding on a Japanese Beetle, and the person who submitted that image wants to know how to encourage more of them. These large Robber Flies are reported to be able to consume large quantities of Honey Bees, and for that reason, they have a bad reputation among bee keepers. Thanks again for your wonderful submission.
Thank you so much for the information. We try not to have knee jerk reactions to what we find in the yard and as the cicada killers are nonaggressive unless you happen to be a cicada, there was no reason to destroy their habitat. It’s a short two month inconvenience of my daughters running to the door from the driveway while screaming.
As for the robber flies, they may be a bit of a bother as we are beekeepers. We have already lost one hive to varroa mites a couple of years ago and would rather not lose another one. Now that I think about it, we have spotted a few smaller species of robber flies in our yard. We have never had these insects in our yard before. Do you think the beehive may be attracting them? Is there any way to humanely deter them from eating my bees?
Hi again Jessica,
We have no advice regarding the deterring of Robber Flies. The smaller Robber Flies are most likely not preying on your bees, and the larger Robber Flies will not enter the hive. They will attack individual bees that are in flight. Good Luck.
Spider eating bee
Location: Vancouver Island BC Canada
August 1, 2011 3:34 pm
My friend in Mill Bay on Vancouver Island, BC Canada took this picture this morning on his daisies. A voracious little white spider that is enormously successful capturing and killing other insects. What is this spider’s name?
Signature: Sharon J
Crab Spider Eats Bee
Hi Sharon,
The scientific name for your spider is Misumena vatia, and it has several common names, including Crab Spider because of its general shape, and Flower Spider because of its habit of waiting on flowers for pollinating insects. Crab Spiders are able to change color to match their surroundings, and your white Crab Spider blends perfectly with the white petals of the blossom.
Paper Wasp skins, preps Caterpillar for larvae
Location: Clarksburg, MA
August 1, 2011 10:51 am
Hello! I noticed the Golden Paper Wasp post, and that you mentioned how the wasps feed caterpillars to their young. I just happened to be photographing bugs yesterday and I caught what I believe is a Common or Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus) already in the process of skinning a caterpillar. In the first picture, you can see it’s chewing/cutting off the head and thorax regions, which eventually were totally severed and fell to the ground. It then started chewing and balling up what was left. I was a little confused, because I thought it was actually eating the caterpillar, but your other post clarified that they chew ’em up for the kiddies. Thought you might like a couple pics. Enjoy!
Signature: Michael Marlow
Paper Wasp Skins Caterpillar
Hi Michael,
What wonderful photographs you have supplied to us of a Northern Paper Wasp skinning a Caterpillar in support of the information we just posted on the Golden Paper Wasp.
Paper Wasp Skins Caterpillar
Location: Hawthorne, CA
July 29, 2011
Daniel,
Thank you so much for your time and for the compliment. High praise, indeed. Coincidentally, another of the very bug that led me to your website back in 2008 appeared today as I was harvesting tomatoes. It’s my Mallophora fautrix and it had a nice juicy wasp for lunch.
Anna
Bee Killer eats Wasp
Hi again Anna,
These truly are spectacular Robber Flies, and they deserve the common name of Bee Killers.
Bee Killer eats Wasp
Robber Fly eats Deer Fly
Location: Clarksburg, MA
July 29, 2011 9:18 am
This is not the Red-Footed Cannibalfly, but still a very cool bug out here in Western MA! Photos are from July 13. (I’ve pasted my comment/story from the RF Cannibalfly post). Thanks!
True story: so I’m out in my backyard looking for bugs to photograph, when I find this robber fly sitting on a fence rail. I approach with the usual care to get as close as possible, but I am having difficulty because of the summer menace in Western MA known as “DEER FLIES.” The only natural way to keep them off of me (that I’m aware of) is to have my dog by my side because apparently dogs taste better to deer flies — anyway I wasn’t subjecting Molly to that torture, so they are distracting me, buzzing around my head when the robber fly takes off right for me. I first thought I was annoying it and had provoked a warning buzz or something, but then I noticed it had landed not too far from its original parking spot. As I got close again, I saw that it now had lunch: one of the deer flies just buzzing around my head! Talk about my hero! I ended up taking quite a few pictures of it and its prey, which can be tricky because I don’t like to scare off bugs from hard -earned meals (I guess it wasn’t that hard-earned in this case, but still). I thought I had done just that when the robber fly left its prey on the fence, only for it to do another buzz-by and land with another deer fly!
Thusly, all I can say is, robber flies may not be man’s best friend, but they might be a close second. (They also deserve a nomination for dog’s best friend.)
Signature: Michael Marlow
Robber Fly eats Deer Fly
Hi Michael,
Thanks for repeating your story along with photos that illustrate it properly. Robber Flies are truly amazing predators.
Robber Fly eats Deer Fly
Spider in Northeastern Brazil
Location: Northeastern Brazil
July 19, 2011 12:34 am
Hello, I have another little specimen from Brazil that I’d like to know about. I saw these little dudes every once in a while in a web that they make in between plants or branches. At first, they appear to have 4 legs but if you look closely they group their legs together in four groups of two. They sit in the middle of the web during the day and night and are VERY FAST when a bug lands in their web. I would pick up ants and throw them in and watch the spiders do their work, which was quite entertaining. One house that I lived in had around 20 of these in the back yard. I don’t know the Brazilian name for this one though. I googled pictures of spiders in Northeastern Brazil until I found the spider I was looking for. Here it is 
Thanks a lot!
Signature: Jay21310
Orbweaver traps Stink Bug
Hi Jay21310,
This spider is an Orbweaver in the genus Argiope, and it appears to have trapped a Stink Bug.
Thank you so much for the identification. After I received your reply I studied a bit more about the genus and also found out that they are harmless to humans unless molested, and if bitten, the venom is very weak. I always thought otherwise because of the brightly colored abdomen! I also found out that the venom contains Argiotoxin (ArgTX-636) is often gathered for therapeutic reasons. What an amazing species!
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