Hanging thief
Diogmites sp. · Flies
Hanging thief
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 26 July 2026
A robber fly braced on a leaf in the July border, one of the hanging thieves, Diogmites, a genus of the eastern meadows and gardens named for the habit of dangling by one or two legs from a leaf edge while eating, which frees the rest of the legs to hold the meal.
The bristly, moustache-like tuft on the face gives the family its scientific name; it is thought to protect the fly's eyes from struggling prey. The orange-brown colour, the striped thorax and the long spindly legs are the marks. Robber flies are ambush predators of other insects, caught on the wing and subdued with a stabbing bite before being drained.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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