Definition of Robber fly

1. Noun. Swift predatory fly having a strong body like a bee with the proboscis hardened for sucking juices of other insects captured on the wing.

Exact synonyms: Bee Killer
Generic synonyms: Dipteran, Dipteron, Dipterous Insect, Two-winged Insects
Group relationships: Asilidae, Family Asilidae

Lexicographical Neighbors of Robber Fly

robalo
robalos
roband
robands
robata
robatas
robatayaki
robatumumab
robb'd
robbable
robbed
robber
robber-baron
robber baron
robber barons
robber fly (current term)
robber frog
robberies
robbers
robbery
robbery conviction
robbery suspect
robbeth
robbin
robbing
robbing Peter to pay Paul
robe
robe-de-chambre
robed
robeless

Literary usage of Robber fly

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Insect Book: A Popular Account of the Bees, Wasps, Ants, Grasshoppers by Leland Ossian Howard (1901)
"The robber-fly captured bees by making rapid dashes catching them on the wing, ... The beak of a robber-fly is so strong that it can pierce the skin of a ..."

2. The Insect Book: A Popular Account of the Bees, Wasps, Ants, Grasshoppers by Leland Ossian Howard (1905)
"The robber-fly captured bees by making rapid dashes catching them on the wing, ... The beak of a robber-fly is so strong that it can pierce the skin of a ..."

3. Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct by Jacques Loeb (1918)
"robber fly Under Normal Conditions 55 20. robber fly with Right Eye Blackened 56 21. Position of robber fly when Lower Halves of Both Eyes are Blackened 57 ..."

4. Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct by Jacques Loeb (1918)
"Garrey observed that when the lower halves of the eyes of the robber fly are blackened the position of the legs of the two sides is symmetrical, ..."

5. Butterflies and Bees: The Insect Folk : Volume II by Margaret Warner Morley (1905)
"It is the robber fly — and there ! — now you know why. Did you see it pounce upon that large green fly and grab it ferociously ? ..."

6. Nature Sketches in Temperate America: A Series of Sketches and Popular by Joseph Lane Hancock (1911)
"Initial drawing 127 Robber-fly ... sacrata) on Sassafras Leaf 129 Landscape showing habitat of Flower Flies. Initial drawing. 130 Robber-fly ..."

7. Nature Sketches in Temperate America: A Series of Sketches and a Popular by Joseph Lane Hancock (1911)
"Initial drawing 127 Robber-fly ... on Sassafras Leaf 129 Landscape showing habitat of Flower Flies. Initial drawing. 130 Robber-fly ..."

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