CLOSED: What's my name? Please . . .

I know I'm cute, but I don't know my name :D

I've seen these things around forever, but I've never heard a name them . . . anyone know what these are called?

Thanks
GD

Here's my profile :)

and my back side ;;)

Definitely a robber fly in the Asilidae

hmmmm ok . . . Thanks Ken . . . but what's in the Asilidae mean? Is that the family? Or the *state* that it's in?

Asilidae is the family. Try searching here for the species,
http://bugguide.net/node/view/151/bgimage
although there are 41 pages of robber fly images to search though

Ken

It's funny this week's quiz has etymology as a choice, for being the answer to 'what's the study of insects?' Etymomlogy, the study of word origins, can be a big help understanding some of these Latin names. Other times, it's nearly useless, or a completely different side story that's as interesting as the thing it's naming. Lots of ancient lore, or physical descriptions, or someone's name. Now I have to google Aselid...lol

Ahh ok . . . thanks for the info and the link. It may take me a while with dialup, but at least that narrows it down some :D

Yeah I'm with ya there Clay . . . I've never been up on all the fancy tags folks put on plant and bugs . . . a necessary evil I suppose. lol

GD_Rankin - what might help you out - I too have dial-up - is to hit the "browse" button on that bugguide site. The "browse" feature gives you a few examples of each genus, and that might be faster than looking at all of the pictures that you can get on images.

Here you go - this will start you off. though it looks like it breaks it down into subfamilies first, so it might take a little hit or miss if you don't get the right subfamily at first, but hey - only two pages to start with. Not as daunting. And you'll be able to eliminate some of the subfamilies with robber flies that are too skinny, too small etc.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/151/bgpage

This message was edited Aug 30, 2006 6:19 AM

Ahhh ok . . . . Sound like a plan :)

I'm fairly new to that site, so I haven't had a chance to learn the best ways to search over there via dialup.

Thanks for the tip Night Bloom

I can see a likeness in Efferia female

http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/robber_flies

This Efferia nemoralis looks close, not sure about the ovipositor (click on Pogoniefferia at left)

http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Main%20pages/Efferid%20frame%20page.htm

More Efferia

http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Rfly%20pages/Pogoniefferia%20page.htm

Pogoniefferia (Efferia) prairiensis?

I went through the ones on BugGuide and I was thinking the Proctacanthus looks like a match, but now I'm not sure.

The link with the Pogoniefferia looks pretty close and the Albibarbefferia (Female of the A. albibarbis) looks close too . . . but hey . . . several of these things all look pretty close to me . . . lol

I'm not versed well enough yet on all the different terminology to be 100% sure. Plus, there are so many slight variations in the characters that the average person could easily overlook.

Thanks guys . . . I posted the 3 pics on the BugGuide site earlier to see if anyone there can give us a positive ID. . . . I'll keep looking and we'll see what they say too.


I did learn something new about these things . . . I had no idea they'd eat adult dragonflies . . . they're obviously pretty fast if they can catch a dragonfly!

The feedback I received on BugGuide confirmed it is "indeed a female Proctacanthus but I doubt it is rufus. There are several other daker options in your neck of the woods."

I checked the other two types of Proctacanthus over there and neither looked to be a match to me. The site Wallaby linked has a few mentioned from Texas that don't have photos shown, so it may be one of them. ?

Maybe someone will provide some pics to compare ?

This looks like it, Proctacanthus nigriventris

http://www.giffbeaton.com/apocleinae.htm

That one isn't on the Texas list, I suppose there could be others?

P nigriventis

http://www.giffbeaton.com/Robber%20Flies/2004-07-07_0033_Proct.jpg

P brevipennis is on the list

http://www.giffbeaton.com/Robber%20Flies/2005-05-15-0253_Proctacanthabrevipennis.jpg

This last link works on preview, the pic is on the main list above



This message was edited Aug 31, 2006 12:10 AM

This message was edited Aug 31, 2006 12:11 AM

Yeah Wallaby these look pretty close too . . . there was another one I saw earlier that I couldn't get to load yesterday that is close also. It was the Pogoniefferia (Efferia) prairiensis you mentioned.

There are several that look almost idintical to me. I'm not sure which one it is . . . but if someone else wants to make a call . . . I'll go along :D lol

GD, I think it's going to be near impossible to get an accurate ID without actually dissecting the thing (I saw the parts on one site).

I did come across one on DG BugFiles when googling that just said 'sp' after it.

Yeah Wallaby . . . you may have a good point there. It's one of those deals that is probably best left to the experts. (which I am obviously not)

It's no big deal to me personally, I'd just like to get the proper ID so I can add it to the DG Bug Database. It's just bugging me now (no pun intended, well ok maybe a little :D )

Maybe someone over on that BugGuide site will provide a positive ID?

Thanks again for your help and research.

I have some too that are a little iffy and don't want to put them in BugFiles without being certain, it is bugging me too!