Bee Assassin
Apiomerus crassipes (Fabrius, 1803)
Bee Assassin: https://marylandbiodiversity.com/species/10413
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"This insect pounces on Honey Bees and other pollinating insects. It holds the captive in its powerful legs, thrusts its cutting beak into the victim's back, injects an immobilizing digestive agent, then sucks out the body juices" (The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders).

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Source: Wikipedia

Apiomerus crassipes
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Family: Reduviidae
Genus: Apiomerus
Species:
A. crassipes
Binomial name
Apiomerus crassipes
(Fabricius, 1803) [1]

Apiomerus crassipes, the bee assassin, is an insect that feeds on bees and ants.[2] It is found throughout North America.[3] Bee assassins can fly, and stalk flowering plants that are visited by bees, flies, and other pollinating insects. Bee assassins are usually dark in color with yellow or red markings on the sides of the abdomen, and are about 3/4 in long.

The bee assassins' fore tibiae are coated with a sticky resin to aid in prey capture.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Apiomerus crassipes". Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. ^ Handbook of biological control: principles and applications of biological control |T. S. Bellows |Academic Press
  3. ^ Tanya M. So (2002-01-01). "Common trail insects of Big Bend National Park" (PDF). Texas Tech University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20.