Robber Fly (Cerotainia sp) and prey

[gmazza]

This week these became avid predators.



The photo above is a stack of two frames (body) with Canon MP-E 65mm @ about 2x and f/9 and one third photo (eyes) at f/7.1

This one is single frame Canon MP-E @ 2x and f/11



There is a video, another one, trying to get rid of a parasite while eating another fly.
The video is with Sony H5 camera and Raynox DCR-250 in front of the lens (very practical and a pleasure to use for video, but do not make full HD images)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCkeLPgqcBI

[Eric F]

Charming photos Gustavo; the little robber fly is Cerotainia sp.

Regards,

Eric

[gmazza]

Thank you very much for the ID Eric, I corrected the title.

[PaulFurman]

Ouch, that's a big parasite in the video. Nice stills too.

I read something recently about how these robber flies catch spiders by reaching out to the web and cleverly simulating the vibrations of a struggling prey. They measured and tested various vibrations and the fly had it exactly right.

[Craig Gerard]

Gustavo,

Excellent images and good technique!

Craig

[Craig Gerard]

Paul,

Those robber flies sound rather clever in a spooky way. Do these flies hunt individually or have they been known to work as a pack, as is believed to have been the case with Raptors (Velociraptor)?

Craig

[PaulFurman]

Oops, sorry, it was Assasin Bugs, not Robber Flies: http://news.discovery.com/animals/assas ... iders.html

[tpe]

Great video, two in one and a facinating post. The eyes on those are quite a beautiful green.

Tim

[gmazza]

Thank you, is very useful to know the video is a feature considered interesting to complement the work, I'm still figuring out the best gear and technique for it at relatively high magnifications and more useful it is considered more time will invest on it.

[morfa]

Beautiful shots of this unusually cute robberfly Gustavo!

[gmazza]

Thanks Tim and John for the support

Hi Craig

Those robber flies sound rather clever in a spooky way. Do these flies hunt individually or have they been known to work as a pack, as is believed to have been the case with Raptors (Velociraptor)?

I observe these every day, they live about 100m distant from my home (I live in a rural home in the borders of city), in a open field (opposite to the Holcocephala wich are always at the borders of open field and jungle), I'm not enthomologist so when I share observing info at the same time I'm asking if this info is feasible.

2-2 weeks before these photos I did these portraits at this topic

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=11292

At that time not observed them with preys, I'm not sure if they hunt just after metamorphosis or develop a little before start the captures.

Tried to observe group behaviour about hunt, but not sucessfully observed any pattern of hunting (don't know if there is a better method for this than simple stay in nature), this week they started to flight in pair and I could guess it's a matting related behaviour and my ambition is to register it. The behaviour looks very different from the mating ritual I observe in the Holcocephala.