Nature Photo Challenge #23: Flies

The theme of the previous challenge was “Tree Bark” and I closed with some pictures of holes drilled by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. And that gives me a great segue into this week’s challenge, because some of the insects drawn to the flowing sap were flies.

My best fly pictures are of robber flies, the family Asilidae.  To me these are very obvious insects — in a field of busy bees and wasps, who are darting from plant to plant, I will notice a large “bee” who is just sitting on a leaf, studiously not doing anything.  When I focus my attention on it, it seems to notice being noticed, and it will zoom off to a distant bush, hoping it is outside my zone of attention.  It reminds me of the 5th grade students I used to teach — in a busy classroom, that one child who was doing “nothing” (except possibly planning some mischief — yes, Christopher, I remember you!) was like a ping on my sonar screen.

And they are just so weird-looking!  This one, Southern Bee Killer, looks like it could be a World Wildlife Fund stuffed toy.

You can click on the pictures to see larger images.

This next one is small; when I saw it this week, I thought it was a wasp. If I wasn’t already familiar with robber flies, I might not have noticed it.

I have seen robber flies swoop off their leaves, grab some large insect, and feast.  They pierce the prey and suck out the insides.  When they are occupied with this, I can get close and take lots of pictures. (One of my insect books points out that their beaklike mouthparts can deliver a painful sting to humans who are trying to handle them.)

I like this picture of a Laphria saffrana, because with its wing extended, you can see the fat yellow body.  If I were ever in a motorcycle gang, I would design my outfit based on this fly. Who would not want a fuzzy yellow outfit with a big black skull on the back?

I have seen at least eight species of robber fly here on our farm.  The Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America says there are close to 1000 species in North America.  But in iNaturalist, there are not as many observations of them as I would expect.  As of this writing, Procanthus brevipennis has only 521, the skull-backed Laphria saffrana has only 474, and the fuzzy Southern Bee-Killer has only 408.

So that is one reason I chose to focus on robber flies here — they might be less familiar to people.  The other reason is that my photos of other types of flies are not that great — if you want to see amazing, sharp pictures that bring out the beauty of flies, please go to the host page for this challenge, at Denzil Nature!  And then scroll down to the comments and see what other bloggers have to say about these insects.  🙂