Until I discovered the “city-jungle” near our residence, I’d never seen or heard of a Robber Fly. At first glance, this insect really amazed me because of the way it held on to a thin grass line under heavy breeze. I remember my first capture of a Robber. The bulging eyes with a lot of colors shining on it looked really amazing. For the first few weeks I just couldn’t find more information or name etc of this insect as I felt it looked almost like a partly developed dragonfly and thus looked always under that category to find out the identity and details. Upon, further describing the looks of the insect to google, I came across the ID for the first time and was amazed to know the details.
These are “The Asilidae” from the Robber Fly family. Commonly also known as Assassin Flies. These strongly built flies have a short stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. It’s name Robber Fly is due to the notorious and aggressive predatory behavior. They mainly and exclusively feed on insects and as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight. While these insects mostly prefer scattered vegetation, they also appear in habitats that are open, sunny and dry. These occur in almost every continent on earth except for Antartica.
My source of information here is Wikipedia. Click here for More information about Robber Fly.
