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Hi.

I can understand that many people prefer to have a lot of species that are easy to identify and indeed there are many insects which can be named from a foto. Unfortunately, it's a fairytale that syrphids are an easy group. For those of you who think splitters should be banned I want to mention that the result of splitting often makes much sense. E.g., splitting Cheilosia ranunculi from albitarsis results in two species with narrower ecological requirements. I'm happy about this. Further, it isn't really difficult to distinguish at least the male of these species. The same applies to Leucozona lucorum and inopinata which are separable evne with the naked eye. Syrphids are not a fine group for people who don't want to kill insects because then the majority of specimens cannot be reliably identified to species.

Regards,
Dieter