Another winter hoverfly ID

[Lord V]

Another Winter hoverfly I spotted yesterday - about 12mm body length. Suspect it may be Didea sp. judging from the abdominal markings ?

Brian V.

[Geoff F]

To be honest this one has me a bit confused, which isn't difficult.

The abdomen looks, to me, a bit too narrow for Didea and I'm not convinced about the yellow spotting.

In many ways it rather resembles Melanstoma mellinum. See the earlier discussion about this species. Hoverfly for ID

Perhaps a bit more thinking and input from other sources is required.

[JRsbugs]

The pale face and abdominal marks look like Melanastoma scalare, M. mellinum has marks which are much more bold coming closer to the sides. The legs are a bit dark but I don't think that is so important. It isn't always reliable to go on pale hairs on the face as light can reflect on some hairs M. mellinum has at the edges but in general it does resemble M. scalare male.

Look at my pics of the males on here, 'blowave'

Diptera.info - Photo Albums: Syrphidae

Also look at pics here...

Melanostoma

Janet

[Geoff F]

I thought that the abdomen looked a bit short for M. scalare but that might just be the angle.

I agree with you, Janet, about the leg colouration being a bit dark; so I went off to have a read up on Platycheirus (Pachysphyria) ambiguus because the grey spots can appear rather bronze from some angles. Unfortunately the telltale curly hair on the apex of femora 1, if present, would be hidden in that photo.

But I don't think it is that species and it is getting very late for males now; the same applies to Brian's first thoughts of Didea.

So it looks like Melanstoma probably scalare.

Brian, my thinking about attempting to ID this specimen was along the lines of: Leg colouration does look good for Didea but the abdominal spots are rather dark and the abdomen seemed too slim; but the chief ID clue with Didea is that wing vein R4+5 has a noticeable dip similar to the Eristalini family, but not so deep. The scutellum of Didea is lighter coloured, although D. intermedia can have a dark edge.

I even briefly considered a rather dark Eupeodes nitens.

[Lord V]

Thanks for the ID ideas and information - appreciated
Brian v.