Eristalis cerealis (灰带管蚜蝇).
Rainy weather provides a good opportunity for sorting out some old photos. I photographed this drone fly in early May but they are always around in warm weather and as generalist pollinators appear anywhere in Changsha there are flowering plants. Their water-born larva, called 'rat-railed maggots' have a long breathing appendage, mistakenly labelled a tail.
Ptecticus aurifer (金黄指突水虻).
Flies are not the most loved insect, but they can be some of the most fascinating. This soldier fly from Yuelu Mountain is a wasplike mimic and is very colorful: individuals come in a wide array of yellows, oranges, reds and blacks.
Robber Fly (Subfamily Asilinae, 食虫虻亚科).
An attractive-looking predatory insect at rest on a ramie leaf, on the lower slopes of Yuelu Mountain. There is a superfluity of moths and grasshoppers about so it will not go hungry. I am not sure about the precise species, but that is fine.
Marmalade Hover Fly (Episyrphus balteatus, 黑带食蚜蝇).
Wherever one finds ramie growing, either by the edges of the forests or the river, one can find dozens of flying and crawling creatures. The sun and humidity today brought out hordes of beetles and mating leaf-footed bugs. There were also various species of flies, including the marmalade hover fly, which is very populous all over Europe and Asia.
Eristalinus arvorum (棕腿斑眼食蚜蝇).
I was at first surprised to discern that these are hover flies, since they are better flyers than any other hover fly I have observed. Over the past week I have seen many these eristalini arvorum, either busy pollinating (beggarticks in particular) or reposing on a leaf.
Phytomia zonata (羽芒宽盾食蚜蝇).
They are one of the larger hover flies found in Changsha. Right now they can reliably found where there are patches of wild-flowers. I have seen them in spring as well: last spring in particular there was a flower patch in Wangling park where a hwamei would hunt for them every afternoon.
