Out with the camera this morning and this stunning fly came and landed near me. It flew a short distance when disturbed and always landed head down. It would flick its wings wasp like when it landed. It was between 25 and 30mm long and as you can see wanted to check the camera out during its close up. I expect it is in the robberfly family but have never seen such an amazing looking robberfly before. Can someone help?
This is indeed a robber fly (family Asilidae); note the depressed area between the eyes. I cannot identify the particular species; see http://tinyurl.com/clnpmd for images and information on some species seen in the Brisbane area.
Thanks for you input on this and the wasp that turned out to be a fly suunto. I had a look at the Brisbane Insects pages but didn't find a robberfly with the same golden face and solid black colour.
It resembles one shown on the site given above, Laphria sp.
Look at the pics second to bottom,
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_robbers/Laphriinae.htm
Thanks for the input wallaby1. I did look at that one. There are many differences though, the shape and size of the eyes, the shorter stouter legs on this one and the gold markings down the back legs, also that one has red antennae. On this one the black is very dark and quite shiny, almost metallic, so while it may be close I don't think it is a match.
Nice shot!
