Promachus yesonicus is a large robber fly, about 1 in (23–30 mm) long, that snatches other insects and sucks out their body fluids. It lives in Japan and Korea and isn't found in the United States. Males are easy to spot by the white, cottony tuft at the tip of the abdomen.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A dark, bristly fly with yellow bands across the black abdomen. Males carry a dense white tuft of hair at the abdomen tip; females have a slender, pointed tip without it.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- grasslands
- lawns and turf
- Range
- East Asia: Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, and Korea. It does not occur in the U.S.
Behavior
- Diet
- It hunts many kinds of insects, especially beetles. On Korean golf courses, half of the prey it was seen carrying was a scarab beetle that damages turf.
- Activity
- In Japan, adults fly from June to September. On Korean golf courses they were most numerous in late June and early July.
Life cycle
- Larva
- Larvae live in the soil and prey on other insect larvae, including white grubs (scarab beetle larvae).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
More species to explore
Record what you meet and build your own collection
Your photos are kept with their date and place, and you can fill regional albums one species at a time.