Robber fly / Moscardón cazador de abejas

Description:

First I thought it was a bee... turned out to be a bee killer! About 4 cm long This asilid fly, Mallophora sp. is feeding on a recently killed bee. This fly captures the bee with its back legs and kills it, once the bee is dead it takes it to a place where it can suck the hemolymph from the victim as we see on the pictures. Really interesting stuff!

Notes:

Adults typically occur in open habitats, often in the vicinity of apiaries. They perch on stalks of weeds or on tips of shrubs from which they launch their attack (Brower et al. 1960). Prey are primarily social bees and wasps, including honey bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees, Polistes and Vespa wasps. Honey bees may be particularly suitable as prey because of their slow flight, local abundance, and appropriate body size (Poulton 1906).