Identification help please?

[DeepcutMark]

Starting a 'project' to identify as many insects that visit the garden as possible.

A couple of days in and I already have quite a selection that my books aren't helping with!

Here's the first three (hopefully they should be straightforward), but I fear I may be a nuisance in the coming days, weeks and months! Apologies in advance.

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Mark, and welcome to WAB!

The first is a Hoverfly from the Syrphidae family called Syritta pipiens, scientifically. The second is also from the same family and is a Syrphus species - you need to see the legs and ideally have a specimen to put under the microscope to fully identify it. The last is possibly from the Muscidae family, but I suspect a photo-based ID would be impossible for this one.

As for being a nuisance, you won't be - we like ID requests (as a fore-warning, not all can be fully done from photos, but a lot can be!)

Take care,

Jason

[DeepcutMark]

Thanks Jason, much appreciated.