Grey-legged Slender Robber Fly - Leptogaster sp.

Family Asilidae

This page contains pictures and information about Grey-legged Slender Robber Flies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.

Body length 15mm 

 

This Grey-legged Slender Robber is brownish-grey in colour with brownish-grey legs.

 

 

Insects are not always be the prey of spiders. Some insects attack spiders. Robber Fly is one of those insects. On a early summer day afternoon, a medium size Silver Orb Wed spider was building its web. The spider had finished laying the frame threads and radius of the web and about to put on the sticky spiral silk. There was a medium size Robber Fly flying over the spider web. After the fly circled two rounds, it attacked the spider on its abdomen. The fly punch its mouth parts into the spider body. There was only very little struggling, then all become motionless. The Robber Fly start feeding the spider on the unfinished spider web. We believed if the spider web were finished, the Robber Fly may not win so easily.

 

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Reference:

1. Family ASILIDAE Robber Flies - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.

2. Australian Asilidae - Dr. Robert Lavigne, Honorary Research Associate, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA.

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Last updated: October 24, 2012.