Big as chickens

If anyone tries to tell you Australia has flies as big as chickens you'd better believe it.  Baby chickens at any rate.

This monster is a robber fly and I reckon he must have been a good 3 and a half cms long. 

Not surprisingly I think it's called a red-legged robber fly (Colepia malleola), but forgive me if I am wrong.  There are around 350 described species of this fly in Australia, but the actual number is much higher than that.

This species is very predatory and catches its prey on the wing.

Duck if you see one coming.