This female Robber Fly turned up inside my sister-in-law's car. Genus Efferia? Medium-sized (a good bit bigger than a housefly, but not huge). It was shooed away unharmed after its encounter with the Giant One-eyed Bug, free to pursue its nefarious ways. (Funny how our feeling towards predatory insects changes depending on whether they're beautiful, like dragonflies, or ugly, like robber flies...)
This female Robber Fly turned up inside my sister-in-law's car. Genus Efferia? Medium-sized (a good bit bigger than a housefly, but not huge). It was shooed away unharmed after its encounter with the Giant One-eyed Bug, free to pursue its nefarious ways. (Funny how our feeling towards predatory insects changes depending on whether they're beautiful, like dragonflies, or ugly, like robber flies...)
Summary[edit] Description: English: Efferia aestuans in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Date: 7 July 2018, 10:05:44. Source: Own work. Author: Ryan Hodnett. : This media file is part of an observation on iNaturalist:inaturalist.org/observations/15793440This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.
Summary[edit] Description: English: A large Efferia aestuans taken with a Pentax *ist DL. Date: 23 September 2005 (according to Exif data). Source: Own work. Author: Opoterser.
This female (on top) Efferia aestuans (ID corrected 8/9/13)) is dining on a male (pinned below). I don't know if he got lucky before his demise, but I doubt it. Happy Fly Day Friday, for some flies, at least.Note: I believe this sort of intra-specific predation is pretty common in robber flies. I believe it is usually the females that kill the males because they (F) tend to be larger. Technical note, on this shot, I elevated one of the flash heads on my twin flash to give a more "key" and "fill" character to the lighting--taking a cue from Dalantech. I like the results--the stronger lighting from above gives a bit more of a naturalistic look, and the background gets lit a little more uniformly.
Summary[edit] Description: English: Efferia aestuans robber fly on someone's arm in Prospect Park. Date: 23 July 2021, 12:28:55. Source: Own work. Author: Rhododendrites.