Asilinae
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Asilidae
- Genus: Asilinae
Visual Description
Members of the subfamily Asilinae, commonly known as robber flies, exhibit a characteristic predatory body form. Observations from the TreeOfLife-200M dataset reveal a robust, elongated thorax and a distinct, often bristly abdomen.[1] The head is typically equipped with prominent, forward-facing compound eyes and a strong, piercing proboscis adapted for their predatory lifestyle.[1]
Biology and Diversity
Asilinae is a diverse subfamily within the family Asilidae. Recent taxonomic research has expanded the known diversity of this group, including the description of new genera such as Longivena from Brazil, which is associated with the Efferia group.[2] These flies are known for their predatory behavior, capturing other insects in flight.[3]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 3 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Asilidae / Asilinae constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Rodrigo Vieira; José Albertíno Rafael. Longivena, a new robber-fly genus from Brazil (Diptera, Asilidae, Asilinae). ZooKeys. 2014. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.443.8324.
- ↑ Asilinae. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilinae. Accessed 2026-07-14.