Apiculture-pest
Guides
Mallophora
Bee-killers
Mallophora is a genus of large, robust robber flies (family Asilidae) commonly known as bee-killers. The genus contains approximately 60 described species distributed primarily in the Americas. Adults are powerful aerial predators that capture bees and other insects in flight, while larvae of at least some species are solitary ectoparasitoids of scarab beetle larvae (white grubs) in soil. Mallophora ruficauda, the best-studied species, is a significant pest of apiculture in the Pampas region of Argentina, where adults prey on honey bees, yet the same species functions as a beneficial biological control agent of agricultural pests through its larval parasitism of scarab grubs.