File:Robber_fly_(Promachus_sp.)_female_with_bee_prey_Babadag.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Asilidae
Sign in to saveAlso known as robber fly, robber flies, assassin fly, assassin flies, Robberfly
The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name "robber flies" reflects their expert predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.
OverviewAI-generated
Asilidae is a family of insects within the order Diptera, class Insecta, phylum Arthropoda, and kingdom Animalia. The family was described by Latreille in 1802 and is currently accepted as a valid taxon. Commonly known as robberflies, these organisms are also referred to as 食蟲虻 or 盜虻.
The family is distributed worldwide and comprises approximately 7100 species. While WoRMS lists the habitat as marine, the Encyclopedia of Life notes their global distribution. Records for Asilidae are held by institutions including MHNCA and YPM, with occurrences documented in countries such as Mexico and the United States.
Synthesized by Vinony from 28 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, Encyclopedia of Life, WoRMS, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
robberflies
Asilidae
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderDiptera
- FamilyAsilidae
食蟲虻（学名：Asilidae）又稱盜虻，雙翅目短角亚目，分布於世界各地，大约有7100种。
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 31,250
- With media
- 5,603
- Family
- Asilidae
- Collections
- MHNCA, YPM
- Recorded in
- Mexico, United States
Wikidata facts
Show 7 more facts
- taxonomic type
- Asilus
- Commons category
- Asilidae
- taxon rank
- family
- topic's main category
- Category:Asilidae
- taxon name
- Asilidae
- taxon common name
- roofvliegen
- diel cycle
- diurnality
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
17 sectionsContents
- Overview
- Morphology
- Adult
- Egg
- Larva
- Pupa
- Biology
- Venom
- Habitat and ecology
- Distribution
- Systematics
- Phylogeny
- Notable researchers
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name "robber flies" reflects their expert predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.
==Overview== thumb|Zosteria sp. thumb|upright|A member of the Asilidae feeding on a grasshopper. This asilid shows the mystax and ocular fringe typical of the Asilidae, with short, stout proboscis and spiny, powerful legs, adapted to the capture of prey in flight. The Asilidae are a family in the order Diptera, the true flies. The common name for members of the family is robber flies, a name first suggested in 1869 by Alpheus Packard based on the German "Raubfliegen" (predatory flies). The Asilidae are cosmopolitan, with over 7000 described species. Latreille was the authority for establishing the family in 1802. The Asilidae, together with Bombyliidae and Therevidae, are the most representative families of the superfamily of Asiloidea and they form one of the most characteristic groups of the lower Brachycera.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Asilidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.