Friday, August 11, 2006

Life and Death in the Far Field


Submitted to The Friday Ark

5 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Ouch- bad day for the guy on the bottom!

Pamela Martin said...

Yes. I couldn't tell if the captive was still alive but its eyes seemed to be imploring me for help.

Anonymous said...

Robber flies tend to be pretty efficient predators, so I doubt the moth suffered long.

Pamela Martin said...

So that's a robber fly! I had no idea how to even start trying to find out. Thanks very much, Bev. The only thing I knew was that I have found shed exoskeletons of creatures like this one around, so I presume they aren't uncommon.

Anonymous said...

Pamela - Robber flies are actually quite common. You'll often see them sitting on a leaf in some spot where they can watch what's happening in the garden or along a footpath. They move very quickly, just darting out, grabbing the insect, and then returning to their favourite perch. I'm not sure of the ID of that one, but maybe from the subfamily Asilinae (of the Family Asilidae). Here's is the collection of Asilinae on BugGuide.net.