Flying Tigers

This seems to be the summer of predatory flies. I have written about long-legged flies, robber flies, and now tiger flies (AKA hunter flies). Tiger flies are in the family Muscidae, which is the same family as the common house fly and at first glance they are very similar in appearance to a house fly.

If you look closer at this photo though you will see a very important difference.

This tiger fly is eating an insect that it has just caught. Tiger flies sit and wait on vegetation for a potential prey item to fly by. Then they will take off, catch the prey,  and return to the perch to eat it. This is very similar to the predatory behavior of the robber flies that I wrote about a few weeks ago. 

Tiger flies are interesting also because of their apparent tameness. I was able to get very close to this fly with my camera without disturbing it. One researcher has even developed a technique for using these flies to gather insects much like a falconer uses birds of prey to catch game.

Tiger flies can be very helpful to us in the garden, vineyard, and orchard. They are known to eat economic pests such as leafhoppers, whiteflies, and aphids.