My First Robber Fly

garyt

Thought it was a misquito at first glance.

xris

Hmmm
Nice. What's the lens?

Skippy

garyt wrote:

Thought it was a misquito at first glance.

Ohhhhh those Robber flys are frightful looking critters aren't they.
The size of them is enough to pump fear in most people,
as well as the thought of maybe getting bitten or stung by it.

Good shot Gary .... Skippy
.

garyt

xris wrote:

Nice. What's the lens?

Thanks Xris. 100mm with a full set of tubes. Lately everything has been small, so I have been leaving the tubes on all the time.

Skippy, Thanks for the comments. It was a surprize. Do these things bite? By the way, how do I answer multiple quotes in the same reply. I noticed you did that in another post.

xris

garyt wrote:

100mm with a full set of tubes

Is it a Canon 100m Macro? EF-S?

garyt

xris wrote:

Is it a Canon 100m Macro? EF-S?

Xris--Yes, it's a Canon 100mm f2.8 EF series lens (the 60mm comes in EF-S). I have a full set of Kenko tubes (68mm), and that gets me about all I can handle, hand held, at this point. If you can find something to rest on, it's not bad at all, since you are only a few inches away from the subject. I would like to try an MPE-65, but not sure if I'm ready for that yet. I'm still learning a lot.

Lord Vetinari

lovely capture- hate to tell you but not a robberfly but a window Gnat. Think most robber flies are in the 1 to 2 " size range.
Brian V.

Skippy

Lord Vetinari wrote:

lovely capture- hate to tell you but not a robberfly but a window Gnat. Think most robber flies are in the 1 to 2 " size range.
Brian V.

Ahahaha, well it got me too, I thought it was a young Robber Fly
.... Skippy
.

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

Ahahaha, well it got me too, I thought it was a young Robber Fly
.... Skippy
.

Come on skippy you know better than that - you don't get jouvenile sized flies they are born as full sized adults. That doesn't mean the adults don't vary in size though - depends on how much food the larva got through.

Brian V.

patricia kay

Great shot....

Patricia........:D

garyt

Thanks Brian

Lord Vetinari wrote:

lovely capture- hate to tell you but not a robberfly but a window Gnat. Think most robber flies are in the 1 to 2 " size range.
Brian V.

Brian--I looked up the window gnat on the web (it's not in either of my books) and you are 100% correct. Positive ID (Sylvicola fenestralis). Thanks so much. :ivar I had another shot of it's back that helped me. The body does look close to the robber fly though, you must admit, but the wings look different now that I see the two side by side. The other shot is attached.

Thanks all for the comments. Always great to find a new bug, and get a decent shot of it.

Lord Vetinari

garyt wrote:

Brian--I looked up the window gnat on the web (it's not in either of my books) and you are 100% correct. Positive ID (Sylvicola fenestralis). Thanks so much. :ivar I had another shot of it's back that helped me. The body does look close to the robber fly though, you must admit, but the wings look different now that I see the two side by side. The other shot is attached.

Thanks all for the comments. Always great to find a new bug, and get a decent shot of it.

Agree - does look similar but think all the robber flies are just a lot bigger with more muscular legs (he says having never seen one in the flesh).

Brian V.

Aussieroo

Lord Vetinari wrote:

lovely capture- hate to tell you but not a robberfly but a window Gnat. Think most robber flies are in the 1 to 2 " size range.
Brian V.

NOt sure if you 2 are serious but it sure looks like a robber fly to me. And yes they do bite the nasty little critters. We get them almost in plague proportion up in the mountains about an hours drive from here. BUt you are ringht they are up to an inch in size, here is one I shot at our local lake about a week ago. Pretty much alseep early in the morning, but we did "Bug" him a little too much and eventually fly away.