25 Could 2024
Typically whereas birding we discover species we aren’t in search of. This spring in Frick Park we’ve seen two sluggish transferring snakes and two “robbers” mating.
The rope throughout the path, above, is a black rat snake or japanese ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) who’s in search of lunch or a secure place to digest his meal.
Two weeks earlier a gaggle of us encountered one other black rat snake off path in dappled shade. It got here to a halt when 12 excited folks stopped to take its image.
Black rat snakes are huge however not venomous and are usually docile (from a human viewpoint). They kill by constriction to eat rodents, lizards and frogs and might climb bushes to eat nestlings and eggs. For those who discover a black rat snake in your shed it’s been performing a public service by consuming mice.
Robber flies, the Asilidae household, had been information to me. When Charity Kheshgi and I noticed these bugs mating we didn’t know what they had been.
They’re recognized as members of the robber fly household as a result of they’ve bristles (known as mystax) on the face, a melancholy between the eyes, and a stout proboscis, described under.
They’re powerfully constructed, bristly flies with a brief, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The title “robber flies” displays their skilled predatory habits; they feed primarily or completely on different bugs and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.
Robber flies don’t assault people however they’ll give a painful bit if provoked.
So we didn’t provoke them.
