Robber Fly, Diogmites esuriens

Kuvaus:

Photographed around 6 PM by the side of a county road. More detail is in the large view (click the magnifying glass). Thanks to Ron Hemberger at Bugguide.Net for steering me toward the Robber fly group of insects, and to Edward Trammel for steering me toward the genus Diogmites.Ron also provided a link to a Lynnette Schimming's photo, which Herschel Raney narrowed down to either esuriens or discolor. I'm assuming this is Diogmites esuriens (Family Asilidae (Robber Flies)) because discolor doesn't seem to have the same thorax detail.These are also known as "hanging flies" due to their characteristic habit of dangling by their front pair of legs when feeding.A good guide is also at Raney's site Random Natural Acts. On this page he shows the difference between esuriens and misellus.