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Injection Needle - _TNY_8310

I don't normally photograph dead animals, but I found something interesting with the kite-tailed robberfly (Tolmerus atricapillus) which had perished inside my mother-in-law's greenhouse.

 

Robber flies (aka assassin flies) are predators and catch their prey by intercepting it mid-air, something which requires quite a lot of spatial awareness. And when they've caught their prey, they force their cylindrical mouth parts (known as a rostrum) into the prey and inject it with a venom which quickly kills it.

 

Normally, the rostrum will look like in this shot: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52458743080/ but here, the actual piercing bit is exposed and looks a lot more menacing.

 

Robbers can and will dunk that one into your finger if you mess with them and the venom hurts quite a lot, but they are completely uninterested in attacking you. I've had many of these on my hands and fingers and never experienced a bite (or should that be a sting?).

 

 

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Uploaded on September 29, 2024
Taken on July 6, 2024