Myinsectphotography - Bumble Bee Mimic
Trust me I am a bumble bee, not a robberfly ready to eat you.
Here's the bumble bee mimic Laphria macquarti @nikv . I would imagine they have developed this disguise to get near bumble bee prey.
This is what a normal bumble bee looks like.
Then this mimic above swoops in to eat the bee. The eyes and antennae are the main difference as well as the flight pattern. The robberfly is much more agile.
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Yes, the legs always give them away. Here's one of ours
We have a similar looking one here they are easy to catch since their large hunch back blocks their vision.
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Yes, they are also pretty sluggish
Great shots and great mimicry story ... before I read the post and then looked better I was sure that this was only about bumble bees
When i first took the pictures of this fly i thought it was a bumble bee until i saw it trying to catch other flies. Then after processing the photos and seeing the eyes i had to look it up.
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