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Sticker of Fan-bristled robberfly
Bug card No. 1635 of 4,939

Fan-bristled robberfly

Dysmachus trigonus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsFlies and mosquitoesGardens and meadows6 legs

The fan-bristled robberfly is a hunting fly. It sits and waits, then zooms off to grab other insects right out of the air. It belongs to the robber flies, the pirates of the fly world.

Lives in
Europe, in sunny grassy places
Length
1.7 cm (0.67 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
It does not go after people. It might give a little nip if you caught it, so just watch it.
What does it eat?
It catches other insects while they are flying.
For real!Photo of Fan-bristled robberfly
Picture by Hugh Venables. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Fan-bristled robberfly about 1.7 cm long (0.67 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 secondsmoves 200 times its own body length every second

How big is Fan-bristled robberfly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It catches its food in mid-air, like a tiny flying hunter.

2

It is about 17 millimetres long.

3

It is very hard to tell apart from its close cousins. Experts need special guide books with drawings to do it.

you asked

Most asked questions about Fan-bristled robberfly

?Is the fan-bristled robberfly dangerous?

No. It hunts insects, not people, though it might nip if you grabbed it.

?What does the fan-bristled robberfly eat?

Other insects, which it catches while they are flying.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Dysmachus trigonus
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Asilidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Asilidae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Dysmachus trigonus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Hugh Venables. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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