4-6-2025 POTRIES, VALENCIA - ROBBER FLY (Pogonosoma maroccanum)

Pogonosoma maroccanum is a species of fly from the genus Pogonosoma. The species was originally described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1794.

The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name "robber flies" reflects their expert predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and, as a rule, they wait in ambush and catch their prey in flight.

The Asilidae are a family in the order Diptera, the true flies. The common name for members of the family is robber flies, a name first suggested in 1869 by Alpheus Packard based on the German "Raubfliegen" (predatory flies). The Asilidae are cosmopolitan, with over 7000 described species. Latreille was the authority for establishing the family in 1802. The Asilidae, together with Bombyliidae and Therevidae, are the most representative families of the superfamily of Asiloidea and they form one of the most characteristic groups of the lower Brachycera.

Robber flies have stout, spiny legs and three simple eyes (ocelli) in a characteristic depression on the tops of their head between their two large compound eyes. They also have a dense moustache of stiff bristles on the face; this is called the mystax, a term derived from the Greek mystakos meaning "moustache" or "upper lip". The mystax has been suggested to afford some protection for the head and face when the flies deal with struggling prey; various Asilidae prey on formidable species including stinging Hymenoptera, powerful grasshoppers, dragonflies and even other Asilidae – practically anything of a suitable size. Some Asilidae do, however, specialize in smaller prey, and this is reflected in their more gracile build.

In general, the family attacks a very wide range of prey, including other flies, beetles, butterflies and moths, various bees, ants, dragonflies and damselflies, ichneumon wasps, grasshoppers, and some spiders. They seem to do so irrespective of any repugnatorial chemicals the prey may have at their disposal. When attacked, many Asilidae do not hesitate to defend themselves in turn using their probosces and may deliver intensely painful bites to humans if handled incautiously.