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Natural History Photographs
by Cor Zonneveld
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Robberflies: family Asilidae
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subfamily Asilinae
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De Hamert (Noord-Limburg), the Netherlands; 8 June 2007.
Female during and after oviposition.
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De Hamert (Noord-Limburg), the Netherlands; 8 June 2007.
Habitat of oviposition site, ovipostion site below Birch tree,
close up of oviposition site. Notice the absence of any (cow) dung.
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Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, the Netherlands; 3 June 2007.
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Eutolmus rufibarbis
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Bank of the river Meuse, opposite De Hamert (Noord-Limburg), the Netherlands; 9 June 2007.
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Machimus atricapillus
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Drentsch-Friese Woud,
the Netherlands; 3 August 2008.
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Kell am See, Germany; 13 July 2008.
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Dagro (Tessin), Switzerland; 17, 21 and 26 July 2007. Landscape with habitat.
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Malvaglia (Tessin), Switzerland; 23 July 2007.
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Female Robberfly, Machimus spec., with prey, a Sarcophagid fly. Sarcophagids are viviparous -
that is, they do not lay eggs but gives live birth to larvae that developed inside the female's body.
Normally the control of birth must be tightly trgulated, but here the fly must have lost control over
the muscles regulating birth, undoubtedly because she was being sucked dry by the fly.
Technically, one might describe this as predation-induced abortus provocatus...
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Malvaglia (Tessin), Switzerland; 15 July 2007.
Female ovipositing in flowerhead of Centaurea spec.
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Pamponerus germanicus
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Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, the Netherlands; 3 June 2007.
The prey is the beetle Phyllopertha horticola (fam. Scarabaeidae)
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Aekingerzand, the Netherlands; 2 August 2008.
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Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen,
the Netherlands; 12 August 2007.
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