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Order
Diptera
- This page contains pictures and information about Robber Flies in Family Asilidae
that we found
in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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- Robber Fly captured a winged ant
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- Robber Flies are air hunters. They sometimes known as an Assassin Flies and
Bee Killers.
They have strong legs which capture prey on flight. They are medium to very large
size flies with large eyes and necked head. They are active predators on flying
insects, unselective in prey species. They even prey on web weaving spiders.
Their mouthparts are the triangular proboscis
which insert into prey and suck the juice.
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- Robber fly pupa empty case
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- We have more information about Robber Flies in this Biology
page.
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- Subfamily Laphriinae - Black Robber Flies
- Robber flies in this subfamily have the wing vein R2+3 ending on R1. Their
antenna is three segmented and without terminal style. Most of them
are shiny black colour.
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- Subfamily Ommatiinae - Feathery Antennae
Robber Flies
- This subfamily is very close related with Asilinae. They are sometimes put
together as one subfamily Asilinae. Robber flies in this subfamily have the antenna in
plumose form, i.e., like a feather.
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- Subfamily Asilinae, Tribe
Apocleini - Giant Robber Flies
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- Subfamily Asilinae, Tribe
Asilini - Common Robber Flies
- Robber flies in this group have the wing vein R2+3 ending on R1, i.e.,
marginal cell closed, and with
slender antennal style. They are medium to large in size. They
are common in Brisbane bushlands. Most of them look similar and hard to be
identified to species level.
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- Subfamily Bathypogoninae
- Short-winged Robber Flies
- The subfamily
Bathypogoninae is confined to Australia and contains one single genus, Bathypogon.
They can be recognized by their rather short wings and the characteristic
wing vein patterns. Most of them are medium in size.
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- Subfamily Phellinae - Giant Robber Flies
- This is a small subfamily with giant species. They are characterized by
the possession of a spur vein, directed backward in the first submarginal
cell from near the base of the anterior branch of the third vein.
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- Subfamily Dasypogoninae
- Robber flies in this subfamily have the wing vein R2+3 open, ending on the
wing margin. Their antenna terminal is sometimes thickened. The fore tibia
with an apical spur; one of the spines at the apex of the ventral side of
the fore tibia is enlarged.
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- Subfamily Leptogasterinae
- Robber flies in this subfamily have cell R1 open to coastal margin. There is only one Australian genus, Leptogaster, in this subfamily.
They are small and very slender.
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- Subfamily Brachyrhopalinae
- Robber flies in this subfamily have the wing vein R2+3 open, ending on the
wing margin. The fore tibia
with an apical spur; one of the spines at the apex of the ventral side of the
fore tibia is enlarged. Some robber flies in this subfamily have orange or yellow marking on body
or wings to mimic wasps.
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- Unknown
Robber Fly
- Please advise by email
if you known the ID of the following species.
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- Reference:
- 1. Insects
of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University
Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 757.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus
& Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p362.
- 3. Giff Beaton's Robber Flies (Asilidae) of Georgia and the southeast
- by Giff Beaton, 2005.
- 4. Family
ASILIDAE - Australasian/Oceanian Diptera Catalog - Web Version, by
Greg Daniels.
- 5. Key to the subfamilies of Asilidae - after Artigas & Papavero1988, by Fritz Geller-Grimm 1998.
- 6. Northern
Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
- 7. On
the Fly, The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families CD Rom
- Hamilton, J. et al. 2006. Brisbane : CBIT & ABRS.
- 8. Family ASILIDAE Robber Flies - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
- 9. Australian Asilidae - Dr. Robert Lavigne, Honorary Research Associate, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA.
- 10. Robber flies of the world. The genera of the family Asilidae - Hull, F.M. 1962, U. S. National Museum Bulletin 224. (Pts. 1 & 2). U. S. Govt. Printing Office.
- 11. A phylogenetic hypothesis for Asilidae based on a total evidence analysis of morphological and DNA sequence data (Insecta: Diptera:
Brachycera: Asilidae) - Dikow, T. 2009, Organisms, Diversity & Evolution 9: 165–188.
- 12. Phylogeny of Asilidae inferred from morphological characters of imagines (Insecta: Diptera: Brachycera: Asiloidea) - Dikow, T. 2009, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 319: 1-175 [Date published 17 March 2009]
- 13. AsilidaeData - phylogenetic relationships within Asilidae (robber flies) - information complied by
Torsten Dikow, 2012.
[ Biology ] [ Laphriinae ] [ Ommatiinae ] [ Asilinae ] [ Bathypogoninae ] [ Phellinae ] [ Dasypogoninae ] [ Leptogasterinae ] [ Brachyrhopalinae ] [ Unidentified Robber Fly ]
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