Robber Fly

When I began photographing wildlife I started by mostly photographing raptors and mammals. As time went by I branched out and began to photograph all sorts of birds, not just raptors. After I started the blog and my interest branched out again and I began to photograph butterflies and dragonflies, but I did not stop there. I now stop to photograph any interesting insect that I find while I am out shooting, like this robber fly that I photographed at Wild River State Park back in August of 2008.

Robber flies are part of the Asilidae family which contains over 7000 species world wide. Robber flies all have two large compound eyes, bristles protruding from their face, and a stout beak like mouth. They use this beak, proboscis, to inject their prey with neurotoxin and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze the prey and break down its insides so that the robber fly can drink the protein though it's proboscis. Typical prey includes flies, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, bees and other insects.