A robber fly hangs near-vertically from a leafy forb, while grasping a damselfly. The robber fly doesn't look at all like a housefly; it has narrow oval eyes, a hairy gray thorax, and a long gray abdomen backed by long, narrow, translucent wings. The damselfly victim has brown eyes, a striped thorax, and a long, dark abdomen. The damselfly's transparent wings, folded back along its abdomen, are reddish at their bases. The rest of the image is taken up with toothed green leaves against a blurred-out orange-brown background.
One for the entomophiles: a robber fly (Proctacanthus sp.) and its rubyspot damselfly (Hetaerina sp.) victim. I took this picture on June 25, 2025 but only now learned the genus for the robber fly. (My thanks to Chris Cohen via BugGuide).
#nature #naturephotography #robberfly #damselfly
