A strange battle in nature: When the prey is caught by the predator

38 minutes ago

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
*Brachythemis contaminata & Asilidae*	23 August, 2026	Natore, Bangladesh

Wandering through fields and fields and observing the life of insects and spiders up close through my lens is an old hobby of mine. As an agronomist working with crop fields and the surrounding ecosystem, my interest in these small creatures has always been a little high. Recently, while walking along the banks of my pond, I witnessed a magnificent and somewhat cruel scene of nature. Before my eyes, I saw how a harmless grasshopper sitting on a green leaf on the bank of the pond became the prey of a terrible predator.

Detailed information about the two main predators of this exciting event is given below:

1. Prey: Ditch Jewel
The yellow-winged grasshopper that was caught on my camera was actually a ditch jewel.

Scientific name: Brachythemis contaminata
Family: Libellulidae
Genus: Brachythemis
Habitat: They are found naturally in various countries in Asia.

Habitat: They prefer to live around weedy ponds, lakes, slow-moving streams, canals and ponds.

Food: They mainly hunt and eat small flying insects (such as mosquitoes, small flies).

Benefits: They do great benefit to the environment by controlling the number of mosquitoes and other harmful insects in nature.

Disadvantages: They have no direct harmful effects; they are completely safe and harmless to the environment.

2. Predator: Robber Fly
The insect that attacked the grasshopper is not at all common. This is the infamous robber fly or assassin fly.

Scientific name: Since there are so many species in the world, they are usually identified by their family name.

Family: Asilidae
Genus: There are hundreds of genera or genera in the world.

Habitat: They are found in almost all regions of the world except the Arctic or Antarctic continents.

Habitat: They prefer sunny, open and somewhat dry environments.

Food: They are completely predatory insects; they also hunt and eat other flies, dung beetles, butterflies, grasshoppers and even spiders.

Benefits: They help greatly in the natural protection of our agricultural land and maintaining the balance of the ecosystem by hunting a large number of other harmful insects every day.

Harm: They do not have any direct harm, but if they are inadvertently caught in the hand, they can give a painful bite to humans in self-defense.

If you look closely at the pictures I took, you will understand how perfect the attack was. The long and spiny legs of the rubber fly have trapped the prey very tightly. Then, it strikes the grasshopper's body with its sharp proboscis and injects a type of poisonous saliva, which quickly paralyzes the victim's body and melts the internal organs into liquid. It then absorbs that liquid as food.

Although this scene may seem cruel at first glance, this is basically how the wheels of nature turn. Macro photography is not just about taking pictures, but also about revealing the hidden secrets of nature and the wonderful equations of the ecosystem.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

_{*(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.) *}

Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	Lightroom
Photography	(Brachythemis contaminata & Asilidae)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Natore, Bangladesh