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Mallophora fautrix
Photo#988809
Copyright © 2014
nature4me
bee ? teddy bear fuzzy -
Mallophora fautrix
Granite Shoals, Burnet County, Texas, USA
July 20, 2014
Images of this individual:
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Contributed by
nature4me
on 1 September, 2014 - 11:41am
Last updated 5 September, 2014 - 3:42pm
Moved
Moved from
Robber Flies
.
…
Joe
, 5 September, 2014 - 3:42pm
Moved
Moved from
Robber Flies
.
Sorry. Didn't realize that this one had already been moved.
…
Ken Wolgemuth
, 1 September, 2014 - 12:27pm
Moved (perhaps Laphria or Mallophora)
Moved from
ID Request
.
Believe it or not, this is a voracious predatory fly, more closely related to the common housefly than to bees. Its ancestral lineage has evolved to mimic bumblebees - to hunt and eat bees and wasps - like the wolf in sheep's clothing.
You can tell it's a robber fly, not a bee, by the depression between its large, forward directed (as in most predators, both arthropod and vertebrate) eyes, and by its small, spiky antennae.
Here's
a good blog on the subject.
…
Joe
, 1 September, 2014 - 11:57am