Lots of these perching on twig tips in the floodplain of the river in the evening and then the next day. Years ago I keyed the specimens out as Holopogon nigripennis, but I ought to double check that (since it was the early days of my robber fly experience).

TAM_255, CRN_9934, MAIS_2011071601

Typical on the beach dunes of OR and WA. They usually perch on bare dry sand between vegetation clumps, especially around the first dune, not down by the water.

TAM_335. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Lots of these on the sandy beaches (upper, by the plants, not down by the water) of extreme northern California. Closely related to L. bivittatus, but darker overall (and with a different shape in the male genitalia).

TAM_328. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Lots of these on the sandy beaches (upper, by the plants, not down by the water) of extreme northern California. Closely related to L. bivittatus, but darker overall (and with a different shape in the male genitalia).

TAM_328. Specimens collected and sequenced.

At first I thought these western populations of L. sierra were different from the ones on the east slopes of the sierras, but their genitalia are the same. They're not always on rocks, sometimes open sand, too. And at night they go roost in the low willows (I found some near sunset one night).

TAM_325. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Several of these in mountain washes of southern California, usually perching on sticks or rocks, but sometimes on bare sand. Black mystax, rich brown colored scutum tomentum, and very curved epandrium help ID.

TAM_395. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Several of these in mountain washes of southern California, usually perching on sticks or rocks, but sometimes on bare sand. Black mystax, rich brown colored scutum tomentum, and very curved epandrium help ID.

TAM_395. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Perching on a boulder in the river. Lots of L. appalachensis out, and we also got one L. chrysotus, but between the two you can tell this is appalachensis by how narrow the grey bands on the tergites are. To separate from the darker L. schizopygus is harder, usually I need to look at the genitalia.

TAM_409. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Yeah, another not-so-great photo, but at least this one is fairly diagnostic if you know the species. Dusty grey Lasiopogon with slightly milky white wings and mostly fine hairs (not bristles) living in inland dunes of the PNW. There was a very good population here in the Juniper Dunes wilderness.

TAM_576. Specimens collected and sequenced.

Yeah, I know these pictures aren't really good enough to identify, but I figured it would be useful to share these just to get the species on the web-- this was the first time anyone had caught this species in decades! (I've since found them in another site.) You can't really see it here, but L. shermani have a reddish tint to their genitalia and their legs (tibiae, base of femur).

The L. shermani were up on the sandy / leaf littery forest trail and along a seep up there, well above the main river. Along the actual main river banks (both pure sand and rocky) you mostly got a different species (L. schizopygus).

TAM_705c. Specimens collected and sequenced.

One of the many places around the Puget Sound area where I've tried hunting for the elusive Lasiopogon pugeti. Never did find them, but got lots of this species (L. puyallupi). This was originally described as a subspecies of L. willamettii, which was elevated to species in my 2020 revision with Rob Cannings.
TAM_784. Specimens collected and sequenced (used for the phylogeny).

Lots of these Rhadiurgus variabilis perching on the trees and rocks at this site high up (elev. 3257 m) on this mountain. There were also Lasiopogon aldrichii, two species of Cyrtopogon, and a Cophura (that's what my notes say, but I'd better double check that ID!) out here that day.
TAM_821. Specimens collected.

A bunch of frogs had died on the gravel road through Glenmeal (my guess is someone must have driven through on a rainy day when there was a lot of migration?) Various scavengers were eating them, including this slug. I didn't know they scavenged dead things?
I also have pictures of silphid beetle larvae eating them.

A bunch of frogs had died on the gravel road through Glenmeal (my guess is someone must have driven through on a rainy day when there was a lot of migration?) Various scavengers were eating them, notably these carrion beetle larvae. I also have a picture of a slug eating one.

There were a bunch of Cyrtopogon falto females ovipositing in this heathy area (the Cladonia and moss covered margins around an open sandy blowout in the middle of the forest, plenty of blueberries nearby, too). I took videos of a few in action, and photographs of this one.

TAM_1330b. Specimen in collection. I also tried digging up the sand to get the eggs but never found any.

We find Cyrtopogon lutatius much less frequently than C. falto in the woods around our study sites, but there usually are a few each year. Almost always perching on downed logs. Here's a little female.
TAM_1316d.

There are always lots of Cyrtopogon falto in the forest around our study sites. Here's a female I came across wrestling with an Ichneumonid (I think, I'd better check) wasp prey for a few minutes. Lots of motion.
TAM_1318. I think this specimen was collected.

This is one of the sites where we've done mark-resighting studies on Lasiopogon currani. This is a great site for many types of robbers, and there's always a good hatch of these each spring in the margins around the big sandy blowout. Here's a male perching on a beech leaf. One easy character to tell it's currani is by the dark haltere knob (only species in the northeast with that).
TAM_1312a

I caught a pair of what I've keyed out as Asilella londti. (Though I should probably double check this sometime, since that was in my early days of robber fly experience.) But sharing here so there are some public images of this taxon. Lovely flies! Riley should have nice photos of them; I just took these quick shots while waiting in my tent. Note that date and locality have been adjusted for where / when the flies were caught, not imaged.

TAM_264, CRN_9950, MAIS_2011072001. Specimen in collection.

I was looking for a rare undescribed Lasiopogon that had been caught at this site. Never found them (just got boring old L. cinereus), but there were several of this weird Cyrtopogon perching by the river, too. They threw me for a real loop-- they're weird enough that they don't really match the gestalt of Cyrtopogon, but there's nothing else in the key that's better! They even have a weird curved spine at the tip of the fore tibia to throw you even further. Eventually, I asked Eric Fisher for help on the ID and he told me. He even said he'd once had a similar exchange with Joe Wilcox! Ha! So I guess this species really has earned it's name "anomalus"!
TAM_687. Specimen in collection. Note that locality and date have been adjusted to where / when the fly was caught, not photographed. Sorry for the funky color balance.

I was looking for a rare undescribed Lasiopogon that had been caught at this site. Never found them (just got boring old L. cinereus), but there were several of this weird Cyrtopogon perching by the river, too. They threw me for a real loop-- they're weird enough that they don't really match the gestalt of Cyrtopogon, but there's nothing else in the key that's better! They even have a weird curved spine at the tip of the fore tibia to throw you even further. Eventually, I asked Eric Fisher for help on the ID and he told me. He even said he'd once had a similar exchange with Joe Wilcox! Ha! So I guess this species really has earned it's name "anomalus"!
TAM_687. Specimen in collection. Note that locality and date have been adjusted to where / when the fly was caught, not photographed. Sorry for the funky color balance.