Subfamily Laphriinae - Black Robber Flies
Family Asilidae
This page contains pictures and information about Black Robber Flies in Subfamily Laphriinae
that we found
in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Robber flies in this subfamily Laphriinae usually black in colour. They have the wing vein R2+3 ending on R1, i.e. marginal cell closed. Their antenna is three segmented and without terminal style. Some of them are shiny metallic colour and some with reddish legs. They often have darken but not patterned wings.
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- Robber Flies in subfamily Laphriinae can be recognized by the following characteristics;
- - antenna is three segmented and without terminal style,
- - often have darken but not patterned wings,
- - wings marginal cell closed and petiolate,
- - abdomen is somewhat flattened and subparallel,
- - long and strong bristles near wing base,
- The antennae are three segments at the apex.
Tribe Laphriini - Black Rubber Flies
- Black-legged Black Rubber Fly
- Laphria maura, body length 15mm
- The Robber Fly is shiny black in colour with all legs in black and whitish hairs on head. Wings are blackish. There are whites spots at side of abdomen. More information can be found in this page.
- Brown Black Robber Fly
- ? Laphria reginae, body length 20mm
- This Robber Fly likes to rest on the floor of footpath. We saw many of them in the rainforest near Mt Nebo. The Robber Fly in the above photos had just captured a small black wasp. Please check this page for more information.
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- Orange-legged Black Robber Fly
- Laphria rufifemorata, body length 20mm, male, female
- The Rubber Fly is black in colour with femur partly orange-yellow and tibiae wholly black. Abdomen has lateral white spots. Please check this page for more information.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 758.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p363.
- 3. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
- 4. Family ASILIDAE Robber Flies - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
- 5. Australian Asilidae - Dr. Robert Lavigne, Honorary Research Associate, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA.
- 6. A review of Australian species of Laphria (Asilidae: Diptera), with descriptions of three new species from Lord Howe Island - Paramonov, S.J. 1958, Pacific Sci. 12: 92-105.
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