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Cottonwood Borer (Plectrodera scalator) Photograph by Dan Winters Texas is crawling with insects—literally. It’s not just that an estimated 37,000 different species can be found here (although we do have more than any other state). It’s the frequency with which we’ve seen them—many of them, at least—during the past year. What’s behind our entomological explosion? The rain has a lot to do with it. Texas weather has been particularly wet of late, a fact that is music to the antennae of most insects, who feed off the plant life that thrives in such conditions. Another reason is th...

Robber Fly – Jabal Ibrahim Whilst birding the Jabal Ibrahim area of the western mountains I found a Robber Fly on the ground. I have seen Robber Fly in Saudi Arabia previously but not this particular type. The Asilidae are the robber fly family, also called assassin flies and have 7000 described species. They are powerfully built, bristly flies with a short, stout proboscis enclosing the sharp, sucking hypopharynx. The name "robber flies" reflects their notoriously aggressive predatory habits; they feed mainly or exclusively on other insects and as a rule they wait in ambush and catch their...