ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Asilidae

 Common name: robber flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Asilidae include:

• Medium- to large-sized flies; some species stoutbodied and hairy, others slender and lacking hair.
• Face usually "bearded;" 3 ocelli in depression between the compound eyes.
• Antennae 3-segmented; third segment elongate and often with terminal style.

• About 850 species in North America.
• Larvae in soil and decaying wood, apparently feeding on other insects.
• The swift flying adults are also predators of other insects.

• Page 276 and plate 13 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 337 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 553 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 505-513 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• Asilidae Home Page of Fritz Geller-Grimm