This is a Flower Assassin (Rhinocoris segmentarius) and is just over an inch in length. They hunt bees and other prey from exposed sunny positions on vegetation and flowers. They can deliver a painful bite that produces numbness, nausea and general welts to humans. A paste of bicarbonate of soda relieves the symptoms which can last for months.
As some of you already know, I have a small fish tank which I have filled with sand in order to put some species in which I catch and can then take photographs documenting developments. I had caught this assassin bug and put him into it and then collected some beetles which I wanted to take pics of too. Without thinking of it, I put the beetle into the tank and this assassin bug jumped on it.
Within seconds, the beetle was dead.
He then proceeded to turn the beetle over and inserted its tongue inbetween the scales on the bottom of the beetle.
All assassin bugs suck out the insides of their prey and leave only the shell.
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