A monster in the garden

bumble-bee-asilidThere is a voracious predator in our nature garden at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; luckily it is only about an inch long. It is a “bumble bee robber fly” of the genus Mallophora. It is hanging out on the kangaroo paws in the garden on the east side of the building. It picks off wasps and bees, injects them with venom and digestive enzymes, and sucks them dry. As I said, we can all be thankful that it is only an inch long, but it is beautiful and fun to watch!

10 comments on “A monster in the garden

  1. Yikes! Our honeybees are having a tough enough time of it as it is.

  2. Jeff Bjorck says:

    VERY glad it’s only an inch long. Great photo!

  3. marksolock says:

    Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.

  4. Kava says:

    cute monster haha!

  5. Is it really that we have to become ‘members of the blog’ before we see your photos? The frames are blank and when clicked in hope lead to a page which says we have to be a member of the blog to see them.

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