[ID] Hoverfly please!

[Jason Green]

Hi WAB'ers,

Hoverfly confirmation please, for all those missing ID requests...

1. I think M. equestris...
Not too sure, though.

Habitat: Grassland near light woodland and grazing horses.

I have a feeling it's a Meridon equestris in one of it's many guises...

Take care,

Jason

[JRsbugs]

Hi Jason,

It does look like Merodon equestris var. flavicans(male). Take a look at the images on diptera.info, I have a few there, in fact I had 5 different vars. last year! Not so many this year, only saw two.

Janet

[Jason Green]

Hi Janet,

Yep, just joined Diptera.info. Thanks for the confirmation. I thought it was visually unique-ish, then came across similar ones on Syrphidae.com and ended up questioning it

I saw both this one and the all-black var. I also saw V. bombylans 'bombylans' (I've never even seen a Red-tailed!!) and V. bombylans 'plumata' in the same area having never seen them locally anywhere else!!!

Take care,

Jason

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

Hi Janet,

Yep, just joined Diptera.info. Thanks for the confirmation. I thought it was visually unique-ish, then came across similar ones on Syrphidae.com and ended up questioning it

I saw both this one and the all-black var. I also saw V. bombylans 'bombylans' (I've never even seen a Red-tailed!!) and V. bombylans 'plumata' in the same area having never seen them locally anywhere else!!!

Take care,

Jason

I do get V. bombylans bombylans, only got pics this year of it feeding on the Plum flowers. I think it parasitises Bombus lapidarius which was about at the same time.

Be careful of 'plumata' it might just be Eristalis intricaria as I had what I thought was plumata too and got a distant shot, I still think it is. I had E. intricaria last year with orange hairs on the thorax as well. This year I had one which was all black on the thorax! There are many lookalikes so you need to be wary. I had V. bombylans later in the season a year or so ago.

Janet

[Dogghound]

This is Merodon equestris, If you ever see it close up look under the hind femora and it will have a lobe (not visible in this photo), Eristalis lack this.

Regarding Volucella bombylans they a parasite on the nest feeding on pollen reserves, waste, larvae, dead larvae. So they are not a direct threat to the bee's and dont usually occur in high enough numbers to cause bee's any problems they also do a handy job of cleaning the hive despite killing the odd bee larvae.