Image of Efferia albibarbis (Macquart 1838)

Description:

Efferia albibarbis – male 1 October 2014: A year ago we walked about at Little Elm Park in Little Elm, Texas, which is located on the shores of Lake Lewisville in Denton County. Among the observations we made that day was one of a robber fly preying or feeding on a smaller and as yet unidentified black—brown wasp. The IDentity of the robber fly had evaded us until now. We submitted its case to BugGuide and we received a prompt response from two of its staff experts including Drs. John S. Ascher and Herschel Raney. Ascher provided the Genus for us, Efferia, and Raney indicated that its species was “probably” albibarbis. Hence the IDentity of our robber fly is Efferia albibarbis. We thank both Herschel Raney and John S. Ascher for their prompt response and welcomed assistance. Perusal of existing online sources provides additional evidence of the IDentity of our subject and we list these immediately following for comparative purposes. To access the ID made for this observation at BugGuide go to: http://bugguide.net/node/view/1149491 Sources: “Efferia albibarbis,” Wisconsin Butterflies, a short description is provided along with numerous photographs, accessed 10.4.15, https://wisconsinbutterflies.org/robberfly/species/284-efferia-albibarbis “Robber Fly - Efferia albibarbis – male,” BugGuide, photographs and discussion, accessed 10.4.15, http://bugguide.net/node/view/23095