Dioctria rufipes, the common red-legged robberfly, is a species of robber fly in the subfamily Dasypogoninae of the family Asilidae.
Distribution This species can be found in most of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, the Netherlands, the former Yugoslavia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Great Britain, and Italy), in the Near East, and in the eastern Palearctic realm.Fauna Europaea
Habitat This species mainly inhabit scrubby grassland, well wooded areas, woodland edge and hedgerows.
Description Dioctria rufipes can reach a body length of about and a wings length of .Gedling Conservation TrustJ.K. Lindsey Ecology of Commanster These medium-large robber flies have a black head and hard piercing mouthparts. The antennal tubercle is well-developed above the eyes. The mesothorax is black, lightly pubescent, with inconspicuous longitudinal stripes. The abdomen is slender, dorsally wider towards the back. The front legs are completely orange-red, whereas the hind legs are mainly black.Nature Spot They show a complete stripe of pale, short and soft pubescence (tomentum) on the sides of the thorax (pleura), with an additional ventral stripe above middle coxa.Identification key to the Dioctria-speciesFritz Geller-Grimm Provisional key to Central European species of the genus Dioctria Meigen
Biology Adults can be found from May to July–August. These insects are predators on other insects. They mainly feed on parasitic wasps, ichneumonids, sawflies, empidid flies and a few small species (Phora, Oscinis, Opius species).B. M. Hobby - A Study of the Prey of Dioctria rufipes de G. (Diptera, Asilidae) in an Oxford Community - Journal of Animal Ecology - Vol. 1, No. 1 (May, 1932), pp. 77-82 The larvae develop as predators in the ground.Steven Falk Dioctria rufipes (Orange-legged Robberfly) Identification Difficult to distinguish from other Dioctria. Wolff, Gebel and Geller-Grimm (2021), ( Majer (1997), van den Broek (1979), Stubbs and Drake (2001) all provide keys, descriptions and illustrations. Older works are also useful eg. Seguy (1920) Seguy, E, 1927 Faune de France Faune n° 17 Diptères Asilidae. 188 p., 389 fig Lechevalier editions (Paris: Éditions Faune de France) <ref> Verrall (1909 )(Oldroyd (1969)Oldroyd, H., 1969 Diptera Brachycera: Tabanoidea and Asiloidea (Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 9/4) Royal Entomological Society, London. Verrall, G. H., 1909 Stratiomyidae and succeeding families of the Diptera Brachycera of Great Britain British flies Volume 5 London : Gurney and Jackson, 1909.BHL Full text with illustrations Majer,D.M. European Asilidae, in Papp L. & Darvas B. (eds.), Contributions to a manual of Palaearctic Diptera, volume 2 Nematocera and Lower Brachycera. Science Herald, Budapest (Hongrie), 1997, pp.549-567 van den Broek, R., Schulten, A., Wouwen N.(traducteur), Field Guide to the Robberflies of the Netherlands and Belgium, Éditions Jeugdbondsuitgeverij, 2017, 136 pages, (ISBN 9789051070545) Danny Wolff, Markus Gebel and Fritz Geller-Grimm: The Robber Flies of Germany: Discovering - Observing - Identifying . Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2018, ISBN 978-3-494-01733-4
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References
External links Introduction to Robber Flies Photographic Atlas