Asilidae
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Asilidae
Visual Description
Asilidae, commonly known as robber flies, are characterized by a robust, often bristly body structure. Observed specimens exhibit a distinct, often concave depression between the eyes on the top of the head, a feature typical of the family. The thorax is frequently stout and covered in dense, hair-like setae, while the wings are typically clear or lightly tinted and held flat over the abdomen when at rest. The legs are strong and adapted for grasping prey, often featuring prominent spines.[1]
Ecology and Behavior
Robber flies are known as aggressive predators, feeding on a wide variety of other insects.[2] Some species, such as Mallophora ruficauda, exhibit complex life histories, acting as both predators as adults and parasitoids of scarab beetle larvae during their immature stages.[3]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Asilidae constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Asilidae. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilidae. Accessed 2026-07-10.
- ↑ Marcela K. Castelo; Juan C. Corley. Spatial density‐dependent parasitism and specificity in the robber flyMallophora ruficauda(Diptera: Asilidae). Austral Ecology. 2009. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.02013.x.