Red Footed Cannibalfly eats Yellowjacket

Subject: What in the world is this?!
Location: Southern WV
August 7, 2017 12:32 pm
I have lived in Southern West Virginia my entire life and I have never came across a bug like this before! It almost looked like a long, huge Yellow Jacket with a thick coat of fur at the top, but the face of it looked odd. I couldn’t tell if it had a stinger or not, but the closer I got
to it, I noticed it had a yellow jacket held in its arms.
Signature: Megan Daniels

Red Footed Cannibalfly eats Yellowjacket

Dear Megan,
This is one of eastern North America’s most impressive, large, predatory Robber Flies, Promachus rufipes.  It is commonly called a Red Footed Cannibalfly, and as your image documents, they are fond of feeding on large stinging insects that they catch on the wing.

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Location: West Virginia