Another hoverfly!

[Hedera]

This one seemed to be sucking somethiing off the sweetpea leaf:

[Geoff F]

It is another of those 'dastardly difficult' Eupeodes species with broad yellow spots.

I would suspect E. corollae male for this one; although I would need a really clear photo to be certain. The differences are quite slight.

[Jason Green]

Evening Hed,

It's a Eupeodes species. The markings are similar to Eupeodes luniger, only broader - I suggest you try this one on the Hoverfly.org.uk site when they fix their image upload problem (unless you have an image-sharing acount!).

It probably needs an expert opinion as something looks just a little less ordinary to me.

Take care,

Jason

[Geoff F]

Yes the front tibia seems a touch on the dark side. Although, as far as I can tell the abdomen spots do reach the abdomen edge.

[Hedera]

Thank you both. I thought it was a bit different and slightly larger than some. what intrigued me was that it was sucking up something - the everlasting pea leaf was dry as far as I could see.

[Jason Green]

...probably honeydew secreted by aphids - sweet and enticing but probably only a minute trace.

[JRsbugs]

Eupeodes luniger male, the shapes are more typical of luniger apart from the spots can be seen not to reach the sides if you look at the far side. The flash is confusing the issue on the near side.

Janet

[Jason Green]

I see that - luniger-style - they just looked broader than usual.

Since we have more than just the Internet-two-three spp. I raised the possibility of getting a second, expert opinion (though it would probably need a specimen to consider them) just in case.