Hornet robber fly

Today I've felt pretty shattered following yesterday's mammoth fieldwork session. I woke up with a slight headache and couldn't really settle to anything all morning. This afternoon, Alex, Ben and I went to visit a friend who's just moved to a picturesque Northamptonshire village. We had a lovely afternoon drinking tea and catching upon all the gossip, but all this meant that photography was pretty low on the agenda.

The only photographs that I've taken today have been scientific - a small liverwort that I brought back from my site to be identified, and this amazing hornet robber fly, the first one I've ever seen in my life. The Natural History Museum web-site has the following information about them:

Asilus crabroniformis is commonly called the hornet robber fly as it resembles hornets due to the patterning of the abdomen, and the colour and size of the rest of the adults body.

The adults prey on grasshoppers, beetles (predominantly dung-beetles), bees, wasps and other robber flies.They generally hunt from bare ground or low lying vegetation including stumps and sticks. The adults are known to take 10-30 minutes to suck their prey dry!

Asilus crabroniformis belongs to the family Asilidae, the robber flies. It is a species of open, unimproved or semi-improved pasture, heathlands, dunes and occasionally wide forestry roads throughout Wales and the southern part of England.

If you have time you may like to check out yesterday's backblip.