Day 352 - Completley Awesome Rougish - Common Awl Robberflies

13 Days to go!

Common Awl Robberfly (Neoitamus cyanurus)

Hey everyone today's Day 352 with only 13 more days to go! Also its the day before Autumnwatch starts so getting excited about that!

But anyway, today's post I saw at Kelling Heath in Norfolk when I was there a while on holiday. I always think that whenever you are out and about you should keep your eyes open, just like the Wood Wasp I found this when I was doing something other than nature hunting, I was on a trim trail - a little assault course in some wood. Look around for nature wherever you are. It certainly paid off for me as I found this lovely Robberfly!

So, here are the facts:

• Specifically this particular Robberfly is called the Common Awl Robberfly or the Neoitamus cyanurus.

It was sat on part of the trim trail

• They are found all over the world in the following countries: Asia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Austria, East-Europe, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic/Slovakia, Turkey, Hungary. Yup. :-)

• Now for UK. Well, they're quite rare apparently, they're found mostly in the South of England getting rarer Northerly.

• They are quite small. Being only 12 - 17mm long in size. I think that's length not wingspan though...

• They are found most often in June and July but they have been seen also between May and October.

• They are found mostly in Woodlands. Commonest along the edges. That seems to be correct as that part of Kelling Heath is mostly woodlands.

Bit of a blurry bugs eye view - it flew off after this shot

• They are like most flies and are yellow and black. If you see them then you'd think they're completely black with a yellow line on them.

• Now I said they are a bit roguish, well I was helped to ID this by Dr. Roger Key and he told me a bit about their behaviour.

• It is a voracious predator which sits on a flower waiting to mug approaching flower visiting insects.

• The only other thing I know about this one is that it's a female - thanks for that Roger.

They were quite hard to find facts on. Maybe you could find some as well:

NatureSpot - Common Awl Hoverfly

GardenSafari - Common Awl Hoverfly

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.