There is pain all around you in Ontario — you just have to piss off the wrong critter, and you'll be in for a world of hurt.

Sure, we aren't Australia, where something potentially fatal lurks around every corner, but Ontario wildlife can still pack quite the punch: a great example being the robber fly family.

A diverse group of species in the Asilidae family, these flying killing machines are also known as assassin flies for their method of predation. 

Robber flies are a cosmopolitan family with over 7,500 distinct species distributed around the globe, including right here in Ontario, such as Laphria posticata and Promachus bastardii — the latter sounding similar to one of the expletives you might unleash if one of these insects crosses your path.

What’s this bug that’s eating the bee?
byu/LimpNote5 inwhatsthisbug

They are an important part of the ecosystem, but are very bad news if you happen to be another bug.

While unlikely to attack humans, these fearsome and large insects have been known to take down prey often feared by people, like bees and wasps. Pretty much any flying insect is on the menu, and robber flies have even been documented preying on small avian species like hummingbirds, and winged mammals like bats.

Despite the low odds of being attacked by one of these predators, such an experience would be memorable, to say the least.

Robber flies snatch their flying prey from the air and stab them with a proboscis (imagine if a bird beak was also a knife and a syringe all in one), injecting its target with a neurotoxic venom containing enzymes that liquify the prey from within. It then drinks it all up like a protein-rich slushie, leaving a gutted husk of a victim.

It's a similar method of liquid lunching as another fearsome killing machine that calls Ontario home. The giant water bug (also known as a toe-splitter) is large enough to be mistaken for an oceanborne crustacean, and similarly injects its victims, converting their insides to a slurry and then slurping up the disgusting results.

So, yeah, it's gross. But such is the way of nature.