ID this bug...

[Dyflam]

Can anyone ID the nasty critter in this forum thread?

http://www.photoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=28296&hl=

Thanks

 

[Not a Number]

Well it's been IDed as a robber fly by our own fellow CPer Dyflam.

Specifically it's one of the Hanging Thieves (Diogmites).

Probably Diogmites neoternatus

 

[upper]

robber fly

editted:damn, NaN beat me to it

 

[Dyflam]

They are one bad bug. I saw one take down a dragonfly mid flight and then eat it.

 

[Jimmy]

They're really cool. Around here I can occasionally find one that has just begun to devour its prey. It's just the awesomest thing to see one standing over a motionless housefly with its mouthparts stuck into the housefly's upper abdomen. And occasionally, I do see them attack their victims mid-flight. That's predation for ya!

 

[upper]

looks like a mosquito.

 

[Botanicadenta]

They're adapted to look threatening to predators, so they can go about as the please without interruption and pretend to be a wasp/bee. Everything I've seen on them indicates that the best course of action is annihilate and prevent proliferation, as they can become a pest if allowed to propagate in a single area.