Hoverfly for ID

WhiskyBottle · #1 (**permalink**) 29-11-2009, 04:23 PM

Working through the summers backlog.
This was taken in August in Gloucestershire, I believe the flower is False Apple Mint, this is a crop of the original flower picture.
Can anyone name the hoverfly.

Thanks

JRsbugs · #2 (**permalink**) 29-11-2009, 05:22 PM

All I can say is it's a female and looks most like Eristalis arbustorum, but really need to see more details such as the face and legs to be sure.

Janet

WhiskyBottle · #3 (**permalink**) 29-11-2009, 05:38 PM

Thanks Janet.
This was a flower photo, the hoverfly was a bonus and this is a fair crop.
This is the oniginal picture and a crop at native camera resolution. Don't know if it gives any more detail though.

BTW what makes it a female (probably a dumb question

but I'm not well up on hoverflies.)

JRsbugs · #4 (**permalink**) 29-11-2009, 05:51 PM

I think it is E. arbustorum, not E. interrupta as it has a small squarish spot in place of the stigma on the wing edge. The face that I can see looks right, so do the paler legs and very white abdomen intersections. But can't be 100% sure without seeing more of the legs etc.

Females of most flies have eyes wide apart where males are close together, but that isn't true of all flies.

Check out my Syrhid records thread to find out more, I'm doing them alphabetically.

Geoff F · #5 (**permalink**) 01-12-2009, 06:31 PM

But looking at the enlarged image, that dark wing cloud does make me consider E. rupium as an alternative.

The looped wing vein means it is Eristalini family but the very variable overall colouration of many species in this family can make identification difficult. As Janet said, we need to see the legs and/or face to go any further.