Old pirates, yes, they rob I

A family walk at the weekend in some quite nice meadows allowed me a bit of sweeping action. In fact, giving the kids the net and letting them have a go kept them quiet for a fair old while and they turned up several grasshoppers and bush crickets as well as a plethora of hemiptera.

But it was the robberflies that again caught my eye as they perched on stems of grass and made their sorties out for prey. First up was this large blue-black indivdual.

It was distinctive to others I've seen in having all black legs and the most amazing blue/green eyes. It keyed easily to Dioctria atricapilla aka the Violet Black-legged Robberfly. This species preys on parasitic Hymenoptera and small Diptera.

The other species was the Common Red-legged Robberfly Dioctria rufipes. Another common species. This one has the front and middle legs almost entirely orange but the hind legs almost entirely black. This one hunts from cover, brambles and clumps of vegetation. It also takes hymenoptera such as sawflies as well as Diptera.

I do like this group. Lots of personality and a good potential gateway drug into Diptera. And I really like the Stubbs and Drake guide. It's packed full of info, lots of fascinating stuff about the life history of this group as well as easy to navigate keys.

Not much I can say about the post title inspiration. Bit of a classic 😉