Ferdinandea ruficornis

[JRsbugs]

Well, what a good job I don't live south of London or around the New forest or I might not have got this!!! ROFLOL!!!!

I got it again yesterday in the same place too, but the pics are still on my camera.

Janet

[Dillybythesea]

What a great looking creature, and such good shots Janet!

Of course the comments are far too cryptic for me, I shall have to google the distribution map and see if that's it... but will first google ROF. (Only recently discovered LOL isn't lots of love, so people aren't half as friendly as I thought.)

[Jason Green]

Afternoon Janet,

It's a good job you had four shots! As you probably know the critical feature is the arista - in cuprea it's black, in ruficornis it's a yellow-orange. In three of your shots it appears blackish, but your second clearly has a yellowish appearance.

Now, I have a F. cuprea specimen myself and have just held it under various lights and angles of incidence and never get it any other shade, so looks convincing. One thing several cuprea specimens I know of have three black seta on the base of the mid tibia. Yours lacks that.

I'll leave it to someone like Roger or other to go further. What does your key lay out as the key points of consideration?

Take care,

Jason

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Dillybythesea

What a great looking creature, and such good shots Janet!

Of course the comments are far too cryptic for me, I shall have to google the distribution map and see if that's it... but will first google ROF. (Only recently discovered LOL isn't lots of love, so people aren't half as friendly as I thought.)

It's "roll on floor laugh out loud" At least that's what I thought it was!

This is said to have only 20 known locations since 1960 with all in the New Forest, and one specimen from Derbyshire but that was put on the HRS in 2005 from older documents. There were much older records from other locations, I would be interested to hear if there has been recent records from other locations. The map on NBN does show a spot not too far from me on the other side of Lincoln near Wragby, it will be an older record. Same happened with the Scarce 7-spot which was an old record and I shouldn't have had according to some, but I admit I only got the evidence on one side of the ladybird!! ROFLOL!!!

There's no doubt about the ID, this has yellow arista and the dull bands on teh abdomen are separated from the hind margins.

F. cuprea has black antennae, I have that too!

Read the notes at the bottom of the account on the HRS..

Hoverfly Recording Scheme - View topic - Ferdinandea ruficornis

Just saw your post Jason, in the pics on my computer I can easily see in all pics the arista are yellow to reddish yellow which is what they should be, check the pic on diptera. info and you will see it has a black tip to the arista. I have more good shots though which are on my camera, can't catch up with myself.

[JRsbugs]

My next set of photos..

[Dillybythesea]

Love the colouring - great to see, thank you! Beautifully offset by the purply blue too. Looks like a plant we've got as well, or similar - called Tradescantia andersoniana Blue Stone (but ours lacks Ferdinandea ruficornis sadly!)

[JRsbugs]

It wasn't the easiest to get photos, being in shade, windy and with a moving fly! At least I got one pic showing the bands on the abdomen.

The Tradescantia was a self set elsewhere from a plant I grew off one my neighbour had been given. I moved it to a new bed I had made under the Oak tree at the front of my garden, I found a lot of insects seem to follow the roadside drain which runs along the front of my garden and is part of it. I have Lythrum salicaria growing at the edges of the drain, this attracts Platycheirus and a few other insects. Having other plants nearby had to be a sure attractant! Position seems to be vital to get insects, I have some Feverfew where one plant gets insects and the rest rarely do but it's not under the tree, the ones which don't get insects are! I guess it depends a lot on the type of insect and it's preferences.

I guess Roger might be interested in this, haven't seen him around lately.

[JRsbugs]

I passed this to Roger Morris, who passed it to Martin Speight.

It is confirmed by Martin Speight as F. ruficornis.