October 29th, 2006
they make ‘em big out west
I haven’t posted much about insects seen during my recent trip out west, but I’ll eventually get around to that. No doubt, you’ll see more about them when I begin scrounging around looking for things to write about in another few weeks after the snow flies. I do have some insect sightings from the past week here at the farm, but I’ll save them for another day when I have a little more time and energy. In the meantime, here’s something interesting that I came across one sunny afternoon while wandering along the rocky shoreline of a quiet river in central Oregon. It’s some species of Robber Fly (Family Asilidae), of proportions unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. As you can see from the photo, it has captured a good-sized wasp and is gripping it with its center pair of legs while biting and feeding on the underside. What amazed me was the *size* of the fly. It was huge. At first, I thought it was some species of small to medium-sized dragonfly. However, when I moved in closer, I realized that I was looking at a Robber fly that was probably close to 2 inches in length. I’ve never seen anything like it up here in eastern Canada. About a week later, I found another of similar size along a river down in the Humboldt Redwoods region. It seems they make ‘em big out west — and I’m not just talking about the Redwood trees and the Banana slugs!
Tags: Robber Fly, Asilidae