This isn't bee, but rather a robber fly in the genus Mallophora. Most of the members of this genus strongly mimic bumblebess, which are their primary prey. This is the first time I've seen one, and I was very excited! In Kansas, there is only one species: Mallophora orcina the Southern Bee Killer. This is actually a mating pair, but the mate is mostly hidden.
Taking a break from Coleoptera for a while to show off some of the Robber Flies that I found up at Lake Tahoe National Forest. This individual is Machimus occidentalis and was kindly identified by Eric Fisher. Not sure what the prey it has is. This species is pretty large, and quite photogenic. I'll show one or two others as I get them posted. I have a rather uncommon one up next!
The Shrikes are probably the only family of Passerines that can wear the title of raptors along with the hawks and owls. The Shrikes, in the family Laniidae, are known colloquially as "Butcher Birds". With a fearsome countenance and hooked bill,shrikes are voracious predators. Usually not much larger than an American Robin, shrikes feed on insect, lizards and small rodents such as mice. A fully grown shrike can take on prey as large as itself. The moniker of 'Butcher Bird' is well deserved. When a shrike catches and kills its prey, it flies to a 'Larder Stash", and impales it on something sharp to leave for later. Before people showed up, they used thorn trees, but now you can prey impaled on anything sharp, including barbed wire fences.
The Loggerhead Shrike - Lanius ludovicianus is a medium sized shrike, one of two species found in the US and Canada. You can often find them hovering over a field like a kestrel, or perched on a fence or telephone line, waiting for something to run or fly by. This individual caught a mouse and hung it on the fence it was perched on. We saw it grab the mouse in its bill and fly away to places unknown. This group ranges about as far North as Nebraska, north of there the Northern Shrike takes over.
The next family in this order is the eponymous Falconidae, the Falcons.... and the Caracaras. Caracara's don't look even remotely like falcons, however, since I don't have a good photo of a typical falcon, here's a Crested Caracara - Caracara cheriway. Falcons are lithe and powerful, with some of the sharpest eyes in the animal kingdom. Characterized by a generally slim body and long, pointed wings, falcons are often considered the most beautiful of raptors. All typical falcons are bird predators. They use their amazing speed and maneuverability to attack other birds in mid-air. Some like the American Kestrel - Falco sparverious, specialize on small birds, but most can take a bird nearly as large as they are. The largest falcons can take even grouse and ducks. The most well known falcon is the Peregrine Falcon - Falco peregrinus. Two decades ago, this species was on the brink of extinction due to egg-shell thinning DDT. Large, and unlike many falcons, bulky, this bird is one of the fastest animals on Earth. When diving after prey, these falcons have been known to reach 200 mph! Of old (and still places today), falcons were used to catch other birds by humans, known as Falconry. In the Middle Ages the burgeoise were the only one allowed to use falcons, and your place in the social hierarchy determined which species of falcon you could use. Merlins and Peregrines were used by the royal family, but the King was the only one allowed to own the largest of all the falcons: the Gyrfalcon - Falco rusticolus, and it was worth more than its weight in gold. This incredibly beautiful bird comes in several forms, including an icelandic form that is pure white with black markings, it's a Red-tailed Hawk-sized bird though much sleeker. This is a circumpolar bird, seldom ranging any further south in North America than Canada!
Caracaras, on the other hand, are not graceful. They are large, bulky, and have nearly squared-off wings. They feed on roadkill and carrion in general. There is only one species in North America, with a distribution in the south-west and Texas, and a disjunct population in central Florida. I don't know much about them....
The next group on this tour of bird families are one of the most beloved to birders; the Falconiformes, also known as Hawks, Eagles and Falcons, the raptors (not Velociraptors). This individual is one of many Eagle species that are found in Kenya, and Africa in general. It's a Wahlberg's Eagle - Aquila wahlbergi. This species is in the same genus as our own North American Golden Eagle - Aquila chrysaetos.
Eagles and Hawks are members of the family Accipiteridae, a rather large family, especially considering the specialized nature of these birds. Raptors are entirely and without exception, carnivorous. Their diets range from insects and snakes by the Swallow-tailed Kite - Elanoides forficatus, mice hunted from high above by the Buteos, small to large birds on the wing by the Accipiters (bird hawks), carrion and fish by our beloved Bald Eagle, to large monkeys and sloths, which are hunted by the world's largest and most powerful raptor: the Harpy Eagle Harpia harpyja.
Raptors in general are highly maneuverable, and have taken to art of flying to a level seldom rivaled by other groups. Some species, like our Red-tailed Hawks - Buteo jamaicensis, soar high in the air on thermals, hardly ever beating their wings. When the spot their prey, the tuck their wings in and drop like a bullet. This high-flying strategy works because raptors have some of the sharpest eyes in the animal kingdom, and can spot a mouse in deep grass from 200 feet in the air! Even more impressive are the bird hawks, the Accipiters, these amazing birds can fly at full speed through a hole in a net the size of my fist. The Northern Goshawk - Accipiter gentilis, is a huge (for the genus), barrel-chested powerhouse than can nevertheless move and maneuver through obstacles and trees as if it were the size of a hummingbird!
Many raptor species mate for life and our own Bald Eagle builds the largest, non-communal nest of an bird in the world. These nests can be nearly ten feet wide and half again as deep, and are used throughout their lives, as it is added to constantly.
Alas, I could go on about raptors for quite a bit longer, but I must this entry is already too long. If you have any questions about these birds I'll be more than happy to answer them.
This is one of my all time greatest photos. A large specimen of Promachus hinei - Giant Robber Fly caught a male Erythemis simplicolis - Eastern Pondhawk. It's perched on a cattail head, leisurely drinking its catch (which is larger than it). This is the third species of dragonfly I've seen a Robber Fly eat. The other two were Libellula lydia (Common Whitetail) and Pachydiplax longipennis - Blue Dasher.
My apologies for taking so long to update, but I've been busy shooting and uploading my photos. Today I'm doing another interlude, and actually harkening back to my Predators segment.
This is a Robber Fly, family Asilidae, more specifically Promachus vertebratus - Giant Robber Fly. Robber Flies are the uncontested predator of the flies, and pretty uncontested by other orders too. Almost always pretty big, this genus is the largest. You can get an idea of the size since its eating a honey bee.
Robber Flies will try to kill just about everything, including insects that are larger than it. I've seen them eating a Leaf-footed Bug which was close in size. While I've never heard of them biting someone, I try to keep the odds of it as lows as possible because I have a feeling it would make a Horse Fly bite feel like a mosquito.
This is probably one of my best insect photos I've ever taken, and I hope you enjoy it as much as me.
Last but not least, we arrive at the mammals, at what some would consider the top of the evolutionary food chain (though that's not strictly true). It's therefore somewhat fitting that the last animal to be treated in this series is also considered to be the apex terrestrial predator (not including Humans). I'm talking of course about the king of the beasts: Panthera leo - The African Lion
Everyone, from every culture, and almost every age has heard of the lion, and often the first and lass thing they learn about them is that they are pure predator, from claws to jaws, everything screams loudly that Lions are not something to be trifled with.
Weighing in at several hundred pounds and more than 2.5 meters long, the Lion is a most formidable creature. The African Lion has razor sharp claws and jaws powerful enough to crush and antelope's skull like it was an egg. While not as fast or lithe as a cheetah, they make up for it by being able to take down much larger prey, things which even a large group of smaller predators would be unable to kill.
How large? Well, though it's not too common, a young or sick adult elephant is not out of the realm of possibilities. Though it does usually require a pride of lions working in concert, if they can separate the individual from the herd they can kill it at their leisure. The only real creature on the savanna's of Africa, other than an adult elephant is the Hippo. Barring those two, there isn't much that a lion can't kill.
As you probably know, lions live in prides, consisting of one adult male and numerous females. Male lions in particular can be very cruel (at least from a human's perspective). A pride of lions can be often be in complete turmoil as male lions from outside the pride fight the established male for dominance. If the current head loses, the winner will often kill all the cubs fathered by the defeated pack leader. As I said, it seems cruel to us, but from a biological perspective it makes sense: eliminating the cubs fathered by another male allows more resources to go to the cubs that will be fathered by the newcomer, thus ensuring that his genes alone will be allowed to propagate.
With all that said, I present my final predator: The Lion
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In debating which reptile to use as a predator I had a lot to consider. I could do something subtle like a lizard, or maybe a non-venomous snake. I even considered a Snapping Turtle. In the end, I decided to throw subtlety out the window, and picked something that screams with every kilogram of it's body "I'll eat ANYTHING I can catch".
I present to you Alligator mississippiensis - American Alligator.
The American Alligator is found mainly in the extreme southeast of our country, and is most prevalent in Florida, where it shares part of its range with the American Crocodile. South Florida is in fact the only place in the world where Alligators and Crocodiles coexist. Not too long ago, American Alligators were facing complete extirpation from large areas of its range. However, thanks to federal protection of this species, Alligators are now so prevalent measures are being taken to curb the population's continued growth.
Alligators can reach sizes in excess of 16 feet and weigh half a ton, making them the largest reptile in North America. With such a huge size comes the ability to eat whatever you want, and Alligators take full advantage of this.
The menu of an American Alligator is quite impressive: Fish, birds, baby alligators, mammals, amphibians, all of these make up the standard diet. Unfortunately, dogs, cats and even the occasional child can grace their pallets, a fact which has led to many many alligators being removed from residential areas and killed. When an alligators makes a large kill it will drown it in the water and then pull it under and wedge it under something, allowing the Alligator to come back later and finish its meal.
However, it's important to know that Alligators aren't voracious killing machines. Almost the opposite in fact, because once an alligator has made a large kill they'll not eat for days, a trait they share in common with snakes such as the Anaconda (which actually can kill alligators in Brazil). The best way you and your pets can stay off the menu is to always keep your eyes open to see if you can spot where an alligator is and then try to always know where it is, it's also imprtant to approach the water's edge and any water plants carefully in case one is lurking there. So as long as you take precautions you'll have nothing to fear and can just sit back and admire this prehistoric behemoth.
As we leave the Arthropods behind, we're also leaving my realm of knowledge until we arrive at birds. In any case, we've moved to the Chordates, and into what are known as the Sarcoptorygians, which include reptiliomorphs, mammals, and amphibians. And it's Amphibians where we find ourselves now. Since most amphibians are pretty benign as predators go, I don't have much to offer, so I'm just going to pick my favorite salamander - Notophthalmus viridescens - Red Eft.
The Red Eft is a curious creature. As you might know, the frogs, which are probably the best known amphibians start their lives out as purely aquatic tadpoles and metamorph into land/water tolerant adults. The Red Eft takes the opposite rout, the immatures, which include the image below, are terrestrial, but as they mature into adults they metamorph into purely aquatic Newts and spend their time at the bottom of ponds and streams.
Unlike with frogs, but like many other salamanders, the Red Eft doesn't use camouflage to keep predators away (bright red usually doesn't blend in with much). The fact is that Efts are very poisonous. The venom isn't in their teeth, which if present at all are extremely reduced, the poison is in their skin. It's secreted from its pores, and any predator who decides to take a bit will be very unhappy. This is why you should always wash your hands before doing anything else when handling salamanders.
As for being predators, almost all salamanders stick to eating bugs, which, as I've mentioned, is pretty benign. So if you're looking for predators, I'll make sure the next creature makes a big impression.
