Robber flies are extremely skilful hunters and their menu includes among other things, dragonflies.
Birding in Karoo National Park
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During our time of living in Pretoria in South Africa, we occasionally made
trips to Cape Town and the surrounding regions. As none of us enjoyed
overly lo...
5 hours ago
27 comments:
That's a funny looking creature. Looks like something out of an alien movie.
Nice photo!
Awesome critter - good model for a sci-fi movie. Super shot as usual, Amila.
Hey Amila, doesn't this look like a species of Dragonfly turned cannibal and adapted to evolve into the 'Robber'?!!
That is what I thought too when I first viewed its photos in the computer, Sasani!
Hi Java,
Yes - mother nature has has gone crazy in packing in so many 'successful' design elements into one refined killing machine in this!
Glad you too thought about the movie-angle!
This fellow does belong in a horrow movie! Fascinating to look at but scary to imagine if he was bigger than us!
CRAZY, COOL, CREEPY.........
Yeeech! While I'm sorry it eats dragonflies (every creature has to eat something), I'm glad it hasn't developed a taste for humans!
Hi Shellmo,
Good to hear from you!
Sounds like it could fit into so many movies!!
Luckily, it was about 3cms - and I was happy with that, thank you.
Hi AGWB,
Sounds like a quote from a review in the New York Times!
I agree, those are good ways to describe it!
Hi Pat,
I saved a pic that I saw in the internet of a robber fly with a McDragon meal, which was scary.
Now, I can't remember the site to give credit for it, so apologies in advance for its actual photographer. May you please forgive me.
Click here to see it.
It wasn't easy to approach close and I had to apply my ultra-stealth mode to get this. So, I can assure you that it is not too keen on humans!
I don't see it at my backyard.
Lucky for dragonfly here!
Great macro work!
I am glad it wasn't a spitting Cobra like in your case, Tabib!
My local wetland patch is full of dragonflies but there aren't too many Robber flies. So, I am kind of okay if they want to Rob a few dragonflies of their lives.
Thanks for the compliment!
stunning shot!
Hello.
It is maintained splendid space.
I was surprised and admired it.
I watched an uploaded Tabanidae, the thing which were similar here.
I upload a video in Youtube.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=BPDpTHcwBl4
For something I consider not so savory, your image sure makes him look beautiful.
What lens are you using?
Thanks a lot, Markus!
Hi PZ,
Good to hear from you. I enjoyed the yotube piece. I am awaiting its identification down to species level and I will edit the post when I hear it.
Hi Vickie,
Thanks! It is a bit creepy, I know.
I use Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lens.
This was taken from about 2-3 feet away. In ultra stealth mode, I closed the gap to less than 1 foot from it to take some frame-filling shots after this shot. In those frame-filling shots, its lower body turned out out-of-focus than in this.
Good afternoon.
こんにちは（Kon'nichiwa）.
I finished the upload of photographs from April 27 to June 7.
Memorandum 2008
http://pseudothemiszonata.blogspot.com/
I upload it in photograph of the autumn dragonfly, this place.
Dragonfly Workshop
http://odonata2008.blogspot.com/
Thanks a lot for the links, PZ!
They absolutely great - shows how passionate you are on Odonata.
I have linked to your first blog.
Good evening.
You linked my blog. I express sincere appreciation.
No worries PZ!
Good evening to you too.
Great photo. We have a number of species around here. One thing that I like about them is their often vivid eye colors. Your photo captures that nicely in this species.
Hi Doug,
This was my first shot of a Robber fly ever but will not be the last.
They can seriously challenge a lot of insects in the 'looks department'.
BTW, I consulted Priyantha Wijesinghe at the Entamology Dept, AMNH about its ID. He had reached a Dipterist to seek opinion and had got the following reply:
"it seems to be a female of a species of the subfamily: Ommatiinae, which have a feathered
antennal flagellum - not seen in your image. I prefer the genus Cophinopoda, but you should ad a question mark."
And finally, Priyantha added this:
"My list of Sri Lankan Asilidae has a single species of this genus, Cophinopoda chinensis (Fabricius, 1794), so if your specimen is indeed a Cophinopoda it is likely to be C. chinensis - but this is only a guess"
good morning.
When I took the photograph of the dragonfly, I noticed it though there was some mysterious insect.
I took a photograph first of all.
I linked the video which I uploaded to YouTube.
http://tanujii.blogspot.com/
Will it be a thing same as the insect of your photograph?
Gallicissa said...
Interesting, PZ! - I will come back after checking with my sources. If mine is C.chinensis -it would be interesting one as chinensisas you know, means coming from China.
China and Japan are not too far I suppose for a Robber fly?
omg, he's magnificent!
Thank you, OC!
Glad you liked it.
Gallicissa...OUCH!!...My heart hurts...sure hope this nasty looking killer doesn't show up in my woods! I don't want to sacrifice any of my dragons.
hehe... spookydragonfly, I can quite well understand your anguish. I bet you’ve clicked on the image link above and seen the carnage!
Robbeflies have plenty of dragonflies to rob here year round, so I am kind of easy if they feel like going for an odd McDragon meal!
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