I noticed that I’ve mentioned the fly below on another occasion, two years ago almost to the day. It’s a Golden-backed Snipe Fly, Chrysopilus thoracicus. I’ve seen them occasionally for the last few days, but only this one stayed long enough for three quick shots.

I’m led to believe that they usually eat small, soft-bodied insects like aphids, so if you don’t like aphids, you’ll want these around. I suspect these snipe flies may be ephemeral, and unfortunately our aphid populations don’t seem to spike until after midsummer.

Craneflies and Hangingflies are everywhere these days. My batting average on identification of these is pretty much zero, so I’m going to say this is a Hangingfly. The question is, what is it doing? Craneflies are not predatory - they may not eat anything as adults. It’s the kids that have all the fun. The adults appear, mate, lay eggs, and then goodby. Not so Hangingflies, which are predatory. This one has the tarsi on its rear pair of legs, useful in grabbing and gripping prey as the hangingfly hangs on its other four long legs from the bottom of a leaf or stem. Given their different lifestyles, I’d speculate that craneflies probably don’t molt, but that hangingflies must, since they eat and grow. At first I thought this one was engaged in a late breakfast. But looking through the series below, which starts with its head distinctly inside the “prey”, it seems to me that this one is emerging from its old exoskeleton. The “prey's” eyes look a little too empty. The hangingfly itself looks suspiciously moist and fresh.

The last month has been interesting in terms of waves of insect species. I didn’t watch for this last year (who could have thought that I would be paying so much attention to arthropods?), but I’ve been more attentive to diversity at this time of the year so far. Ebony jewelwings are still everywhere, and my recollection is that they will persist for quite some time. I’m not so sure about craneflies but suspect there will come a time soon when I will see many fewer of them. I’ve seen a fair number of damsel dragonflies of different species, some easily recognizable, and will have to keep watching to see if those persist throughout the summer. The other day I saw a very tiny Eastern Pondhawk (a startlingly green dragonfly), and recall that last year I was seeing pondhawks flying about way late into the cool and even cold autumn. I think I have a small list of certain easily recognized flies, such as the snipe fly above, to be able to note whether those persist, or decline in population.