Assassin bug with pentatomid prey and kleptoparasitic Milichiidae and Chloropidae

Licence: 
Creative Commons Licence
Imaging technique: 
Photograph
Keywords: 
habitus live, kleptoparasitic
Description: 

© Ted C. MacRae

I photographed the assassin bug with prey in the photo earlier this week in Chaco Province, Argentina in a soybean field. The prey is a stink bug, Piezodorus guildenii. The flies crawled all over the assassin bug as it fed, and the bug would periodically wipe its forelegs slowly over its head to dislodge flies that had settled on it.

Taxonomic name: 
Milichiella lacteipennis (Classification), Chloropidae (Classification)
Associated taxa: 
Reduviidae
Piezodorus guildenii
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith