#northeastern hammertail

[northerlyy]

Northeastern Hammertails (Efferia aestuans), females, taken July 20, 2025, in New Hampshire, US

A couple of the big and beautiful lady hammertails that were flying around on this day! One of them has even caught herself a lunch that's her size! I've seen females of this species with some large and formidable-looking prey items, but never a robber fly their size. This guy must have put up quite the fight! Though I still think the female I saw last year with a carpenter ant gyne (winged female) significantly larger than herself was a little more impressive. That must have been a truly formidable foe!

[spidersflower]

(Click for better quality)

this here's a Northeastern hammertail (Efferia aestuans)

pictured on a twig

[northerlyy]

Northeastern Hammertails (Efferia aestuans), females, taken July 15, 2024, in New Hampshire, US

I have too many pictures of these things... They were the beginning of my love of robber flies! You can't see in these images, but females of this genus can be distinguished from males by the large blade-like ovipositors on the end of their abdomen, while males have a white strip on the abdomen and a large hammer-shaped bulge on the end, hence their name! Two of these ladies are enjoying tasty moth (left) and plant bug (right) meals, while the third looks to have recently had a meal herself, if her enlarged abdomen is anything to go by!

[shownumetal]

i love my terrible bug pictures they’re v important to me. northeastern hammertail and arcane grass tubeworm moth