Diptera Carnivora is a general term for carnivorous insects, with about 6,750 species distributed all over the world. The length varies, and the largest is almost 8 cm (3 inches), which is the largest of all flies. The body is brown, thick and usually hairy. It looks like a bumblebee. The ocular surface is large and there are bristles between the eyes. Long feet, can hunt in flight, and hold food with their feet when eating. Because of his quick reaction, he is an expert in catching insects.

I often see flies that eat insects lying leisurely on branches, with big glasses, strong legs and a lot of space.

If you observe it a little longer, you will see a scene that surprises you.

I saw the insect-eating fly swish and disappear. When you looked everywhere, it swished back. Look carefully again and find that there is a bug on its sucking mouthparts, sometimes even a cicada about the same size as itself.

It can be said that insect-eating flies are very fierce hunters in the insect world, equivalent to lions and tigers.

So why are insect-eating flies so fierce and have such strong predation ability?

First of all, it benefits from its size and strength, but these are not enough. Some insects are also very strong, and when caught, they will struggle desperately, which may lead to self-harm of insect-eating flies. The short and thick bristles on the insect-eating fly protect the insect's body, so that the prey can not directly touch its body, so that it can be captured and eaten safely.

A bearded bristle.

Powerful legs, a bristly body.

Insect-eating flies feed with piercing mouthparts. Their beaks pierce their prey, inject saliva containing toxic and proteolytic enzymes, paralyze their prey, and suck liquid through their long mouths. Adult insect-eating flies can attack flies, beetles, butterflies, moths and so on.

Sometimes you can even prey on dragonflies several times bigger than yourself. What a fierce insect hunter.

Insect-eating adults prey on insects and will destroy some pests. What about its larvae?

Insect-eating grubs have also been studied by scientists for a long time, and it has been found that they grow in the soil and prey on grubs of some scarabalaceae insects.

Therefore, although insect-eating flies look a bit avant-garde and look like flies, most of them are beneficial insects. We should live in harmony with them.

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