Gnat Ogres

These creatures are the size of an average Mosquito. Think of measuring them in millimeters. Incredibly tiny, but look at those eyes!

I don’t find much information about these insects in my many books, or on the Internet, but I see that they are in the Robber Fly family. And in the genus, Holcocephala. Here you see a Gnat Ogre (Holcocephala).

There are at least forty species of Gnat Ogres described in this genus, Holcocephala. Three of those species can be found in eastern North America. Given the limited amount of information available about these very small insects, I’m not going to try to narrow down which of them I’ve captured in pixels. I think the amazing sounding name, Gnat Ogre, is sufficient.

They perch on the tips of vegetation, patiently waiting for their dinner to fly within range. Dinner? Gnats.

Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.