The Robber Fly

This large and intimidating looking fellow is a robber fly, a member of the family Asilidae, and he is your friend.

There are approximately 1,000 species of robber flies in North America. Robber flies are insect predators and considered to be beneficial insects to those in agriculture, particularly if you have livestock. Females lay egg masses in the ground, tree bark, or other crevices. Once hatched, the larvae have a healthy appetite and eat a varied diet including decaying plant matter, grasshopper eggs, maggots, and grubs.

As you can see from his physique, the adults, are master hunters, often catching prey in mid-flight, and are known to eat flies, grasshoppers, beetles, wasps, bees, leafhoppers, etc. They play an important role in keeping nature in balance.

Видео The Robber Fly канала The IDEA Farm Network