{"id":17313,"date":"2026-07-08T08:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=17313"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:33:13","slug":"a-tale-of-two-robber-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/a-tale-of-two-robber-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Robber Flies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BugLady was walking at Riveredge Nature Center one day in mid-June when she spied a small Robber fly perched on a leaf, hanging onto its prey.\u00a0When she put the picture up on the monitor, she recognized the predator as a small (barely \u00bd\u201d) Robber fly named the Stripe-legged robber fly (family Asilidae).\u00a0Then she tried to figure out what it was holding.\u00a0It kind of looked like a midge, and that\u2019s how she (uneasily) ended up labeling the picture.\u00a0Then, as she often does, she entered her dragonfly list for the day at the <a href=\"https:\/\/wiatri.net\/inventory\/odonata\/\">Wisconsin Odonata Survey<\/a> website and sent her butterfly list to the <a href=\"https:\/\/wisconsinbutterflies.org\/\">Wisconsin Butterflies<\/a> page.\u00a0Mike Reese, who runs the site, is also interested in Tiger beetles and Robber flies, and he knew what the prey was.\u00a0Many thanks, Mike.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, the predator, the STRIPE-LEGGED ROBBER FLY<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">North America is home to a wide variety of alien\/exotic\/non-native plant and animal species. Along with famous <a href=\"https:\/\/sewisc.org\/\">invasives<\/a> like Purple loosestrife, Garlic mustard, Emerald ash borers, and Spongy (Gypsy) moths, we also have non-native species that keep their heads down and are not invasive &#8211; butterflies, daddy longlegs, orchids, and more.\u00a0The Stripe-legged, aka the Glassy-winged, aka the European Longhorn robber fly (<em>Dioctria hyalipennis<\/em>)\u00a0is one of two non-native Robber flies. The species name \u201c<em>hyalipennis<\/em>\u201d comes from the Greek word\u00a0<em>hyalo<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cglass\u201d or \u201cclear\u201d) and the Latin word\u00a0<em>pennis<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cwing\u201d or \u201cfeather\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their original haunts were sun-dappled shrubby\/woody areas, parks, yards, hedgerows, and field edges in western Europe and northern Africa, but they found their way across the Pond and were first spotted around Boston in 1916. Today they are found throughout the northeastern quadrant of North America (plus, inexplicably, in Seattle and Denver).\u00a0They\u2019re not uncommon in the areas where they occur, and they\u2019re said to be somewhat gregarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like other Robber flies, they spot their prey from a perch and fly out to grab it.\u00a0And, like other Robber flies, they may go after prey that\u2019s almost as big as they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One source pointed out that as Robber flies go, Stripe-legged robber flies are not particularly spiney, but since many of the small insects they eat are soft-bodied, like flies, small moths, and leafhoppers, robust spines on the legs aren\u2019t as critical.\u00a0They also tackle pygmy grasshoppers, bees, and wasps.\u00a0Matt Pelikan, who writes an excellent Nature column for the Martha\u2019s Vineyard Times, describes it: \u201c<em>Perched glassy-winged robbers are constantly alert, and visibly track any object that flies near them, adjusting their stilt-like legs and pivoting their heads to keep the target in view. Fast-moving insects are left alone, but when a suitable target putters past, Dioctria launches and zeroes in on its victim. As with most robbers, a high percentage of attacks connect<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He continues, \u201c<em>The process is too fast to watch. The robber grasps its victim and rams pointed mouthparts into its body, injecting a blast of enzymes that both paralyze the prey and begin to break down its tissues. Robbers, with spindly necks, surely don\u2019t have neck muscles that allow them to \u201cpeck\u201d their way through a victim\u2019s exoskeleton; I surmise that they grasp the victim with their legs and pull it against their beaks, with the hairs and spines on a robber\u2019s legs being there to assure a firm enough grasp to do this.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026\u00a0<em>It doesn\u2019t take Dioctria long to drain a typical victim: after five minutes or so, the emptied husk is tossed overboard, and the robber fly resumes scanning for its next meal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A Piper Cub in a family of fighter planes, the glassy-winged robber fly may be the shortest, lightest, least well-defended, and slowest-flying member of this group. You might think those traits would be disadvantages in a predator. But a lot of dead leafhoppers argue otherwise. Dioctria is perfectly adapted to find and catch a class of prey that is both abundant and vulnerable<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"286\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2026\/07\/fly-robber-painted-pixie26-1rz.webp\" alt=\"Painted Pixie on leaf\" class=\"wp-image-17315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2026\/07\/fly-robber-painted-pixie26-1rz.webp 400w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2026\/07\/fly-robber-painted-pixie26-1rz-300x215.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption>Painted Pixie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the Prey? A PAINTED PIXIE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Mike looked at the picture, he identified the prey as another Robber fly &#8211; at \u00bc\u201d-ish, the smallest one we have, a Painted Pixie (<em>Beameromyia pictipes<\/em>) (<em>pictipes<\/em>\u00a0comes from \u201c<em>picti<\/em>\u201d \u2013 painted- and \u201c<em>pes<\/em>\u201d \u2013 foot).\u00a0He went on to say that he has seen them around southern Wisconsin, and the BugLady takes off her hat to him \u2013 if anyone can spot a midge-sized Robber fly, it\u2019s Mike.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sources generally conclude that there\u2019s little information about the Painted Pixie because it\u2019s rarely observed. So, the BugLady backed up a couple of notches taxonomically to its subfamily, Leptogastrinae.\u00a0Species in the subfamily tend to be small and inconspicuous. Some species tweak the general Robber fly MO and hover before picking up prey that\u2019s sitting on vegetation.\u00a0Or spiders from their webs &#8211; the Leptogastrinae eat more spiders than other groups of Robber flies do. Here are some spectacular (sub)<a href=\"https:\/\/robberfly.org\/leptogastrinae\/\">family pictures.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The genus\u00a0<em>Beameromyia<\/em>\u00a0is a very small genus with 15 species in North America and only 24 worldwide.\u00a0Most of our species are found in the Southwest.\u00a0These are tiny, slender, long-legged flies that have variously swollen hind legs.\u00a0They\u2019re found in the east and Midwest in the semi-open areas, where they feed on very small spiders and flying insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Caveat emptor \u2013 one site that presented pictures and \u201cfacts\u201d about the genus&nbsp;<em>Beameromyia<\/em>&nbsp;was, in fact, just plugging in generic Robber fly information, and stated that \u201c<em>As members of the Asilidae, these predatory flies are characterized by their robust build and predatory habits.<\/em>\u201d]&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a monograph on the revision of the classification of the subfamily published by the American Museum of Natural History in 1957, Charles H. Martin wrote that the range of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Beameromyia pictipes<\/em>\u00a0\u201c<em>seems to be a narrow belt extending from Kansas to Maryland<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0<em>Robber Flies of the Southeast<\/em>\u00a0lists their range as the Eastern and Midwestern US, where along with dappled woods and edges, their habitat includes old fields and grassy dunes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the BugLady\u2019s photograph of the two?\u00a0Right time, right place, right toys.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, a correction:\u00a0alert BugFan Tod noted that in last week\u2019s salute to spring, the BugLady misspelled the name of the Duskywing, writing \u201cJuvenile\u2019s\u201d Duskywing instead of Juvenal\u2019s.\u00a0Juvenal was a Roman author of satirical poetry, and the BugLady has no idea how that connects with butterflies. Thanks Tod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady was walking at Riveredge Nature Center one day in mid-June when she spied a small Robber fly perched on a leaf, hanging onto its prey.\u00a0When she put the picture up on the monitor, she recognized the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40205,"featured_media":17314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[515,954],"class_list":["post-17313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-fly","tag-robber-flies"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - 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