Males hunt for a mate in a similar fashion, minus the lethal injection. Enzymes in the lethal injection help digest the prey’s bodily fluids, making it easier for the fly to consume. The prey is then carried back to the perch to be eaten. Once located, robber flies grab their prey in midair and inject it with neurotoxic saliva which rapidly immobilizes it. They typically hunt for prey from a perch overlooking sunny, open areas. Robber flies (Family: Asilidae) are a highly diverse family of flies. Syrphid flies have two wings whereas bees and wasps have four.Ī syrphid fly resting on a blackberry leaf. An easy way to distinguish them is to count their wings, assuming they sit still long enough. As they visit flowers, adult syrphid flies are often mistaken for bees or wasps. Once the blind and legless larvae hatch, they go to work crawling around and sucking the bodily fluids out of their prey. Adults frequently lay their eggs among or near aphid colonies to ensure the larvae have plenty to eat. Syrphid fly larvae however, are voracious predators of aphids, scales, thrips, and small caterpillars. Syrphid flies (Family: Syrphidae), also called hoverflies, are commonly observed hovering around flowers, feeding on nectar and pollen all while contributing to pollination. Green lacewing larvae can eat between 100 and 150 aphids in their lifetime. They are mainly predators of aphids, but will also eat small caterpillars or beetle larvae. The larvae are wingless therefore, they crawl around on plant leaves in order to search for prey. This keeps the eggs up and away from predators, such as sibling lacewings. Eggs are laid at night on the tip of a thin, hair-like stalk about a half inch long. Adults feed on nectar, pollen, and honeydew and are commonly observed flying around lights after dark. Green lacewings (Family: Chrysopidae) get their name from their lacy-looking wings. Ground beetles can consume up to their body weight each day.Ī lacewing egg at the end of its hair-like stalk. The adults and larvae are predacious, but larvae live in the soil and have a smaller search range. Ground beetles and tiger beetles feed on aphids, caterpillars, other beetle larvae, fly larvae, mites, springtails, slugs, and even small weed seed. Ground beetle are constantly on the move, searching for prey by sight, though some species detect prey by scent. Generally, they have large eyes, long legs, and large, powerful jaws for grabbing prey.
Ground beetles and tiger beetles (Family: Carabidae) are common in almost every environment and come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. Lady beetles also feed on caterpillars, moth eggs, scales, mites, and they may also be cannibalistic if prey is scarce. Lady beetles eat aphids whole and may gobble down as many as 5,000 throughout the course of their life. Lady beetles (Family: Coccinellidae), often called ladybugs, are among the most recognizable insects and are very common and voracious predators of aphids. Justin Ballew, ©HGIC 2019, Clemson Extension Lady bug eggs (yellow mass) laid next to an aphid colony on the underside of a cotton leaf.
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