Adults about 16–25 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Microstylum cilipes
A giant Madagascan robber fly that turns another flying insect into a liquefied meal while holding it in a cage of bristled legs.
About this species
Microstylum cilipesMacquart, 1838
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Microstylum cilipes is one of Madagascar’s large robber flies. It is a powerfully built aerial predator with a rigid piercing proboscis, dense facial bristles and long black legs used to intercept and restrain prey.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Microstylum
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
MadagascarBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Madagascar
Open forest, scrub, clearings and sunlit vegetation.
Diurnal; hunts from exposed perches and attacks in flight.
Other insects captured in the air or from vegetation.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Historical revisions called it “large and striking” and recorded females up to about 25 millimetres — enormous for a predatory fly and large enough for the compound eyes and thoracic flight muscles to dominate the body.
After seizing an insect, the fly drives a short rigid proboscis through the exoskeleton, injects saliva that immobilises prey and begins external digestion, then drinks the liquefied tissues.
The dense moustache of bristles is a facial shield called a mystax; it protects the eyes and head from kicking legs, stings and biting mouthparts while the predator forces its face against struggling prey.
Sources and scientific references
- GBIF — taxon record/search for Microstylum cilipes
- Catalogue of Life — taxon search for Microstylum cilipes
- Bromley — The Genus Microstylum in Madagascar, describing M. cilipes as large and striking
- Bromley — Madagascan robber-fly revision with diagnostic black legs and measurements
- Natural history of robber-fly prey capture, venomous saliva and protective mystax