Black-backed Lampria

Lampria bicolor · Order: Diptera · Family: Asilidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Black-backed Lampria
Photo: Will Kuhn, CC BY

Lampria bicolor is a robber fly in the family Asilidae. It lives mainly east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and has also been reported in South America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Lampria bicolor belongs to the robber-fly family Asilidae.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

It has also been reported in South America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 20 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Florida, Maryland, Arkansas, Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, Tennessee.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Black-backed Lampria photo 2
Photo: iNaturalist user, CC0
Black-backed Lampria photo 3
Photo: Paul Bedell, CC BY-SA
Black-backed Lampria photo 4
Photo: Aubrey French, CC BY
Black-backed Lampria photo 5
Photo: iNaturalist user, CC0

Same family (Asilidae)

Northeastern HammertailNortheastern HammertailEfferia aestuansHarmlessStripe-legged Robber FlyStripe-legged Robber FlyDioctria hyalipennisPlain-tailed Hanging ThiefPlain-tailed Hanging ThiefDiogmites neoternatusKite-tailed robberflyKite-tailed robberflyTolmerus atricapillusGolden-tailed BeebanditGolden-tailed BeebanditMallophora fautrixSand HammertailSand HammertailEfferia albibarbis

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lampria_bicolor

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-27 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-27.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.