A little while ago someone posted a photo on our local Facebook group of a kite-tailed robber fly, Machimus atricapillus. It was inside their house, they did not know what it was, did not know if it was dangerous and wanted to know what they should do with it. That is not at all unreasonable as I suspect very few people would know that this was a robber fly and that it was quite harmless to humans although something of a threat to other insects.
The post generated a number of responses including “it’s nasty” or “it bites” or “it has a painful sting” (all of which are untrue) at one extreme to the “it is only a fly, swat it” and “kill it, what use is it?” type response. At the other end of the spectrum were “it is harmless, let it go, we need these pollinators”.
As someone interested in the natural world, ecology and biodiversity no guesses as to my preferred course of action; let it go and let it live its life, all life has a value even if that value is not apparent to us humans. There was something about the “we need these pollinators” answers, however, that occurred to me. Of course we need pollinating insects, they are vital to our existence and they are declining rapidly BUT this is a robber fly, it does not pollinate plants, it preys on other insects, many of which are pollinators. So there is a moral dilemma here! If you kill the robber fly then the lives of a few other insects, probably pollinators, will be saved … so maybe nature would be better served by swatting the damned thing?
I remain firmly in the ‘live and let live’ camp and would encourage its release but when commenting on such issues maybe we just need to think them through and if we are not certain of the correct answer maybe we should just keep quiet rather than spread ‘fake news’? Maybe we should all remember the World War 2 catch phrase, “careless talk costs lives” even if, in this case, it is only the life of a fly!
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