Hoverfly ID's

Tormentil · #1 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 06:43 AM

Can some one ID these please?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

htcdude · #2 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 07:24 AM

1 and 4 are Scaeva pyrastri, that's all I'm going to be confident on, 1 and 3 might be the same.

Nige

Jason Green · #3 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 08:49 AM

Morning Ben,

As Nige said for 1+4. Eupeodes corollae for 2-3 as male-female respectively. 5 looks like one of them Melangyna-types, and the last is Eupeodes luniger, male.

Take care,

Jason

diggleken · #4 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 09:11 AM

I think 5 might well be Meliscaeva auricollis.
Cheers
Ken

Geoff F · #5 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 08:17 PM

That looks good to me, Ken.

Has anybody had a go at #6. Rather looks like Eupeodus luniger to me.

JRsbugs · #6 (**permalink**) 03-08-2011, 08:27 PM

#1 & 4 Scaeva pyrastri female

#2 & 3 Eupeodes corollae male and female

#5 Meliscaeva auricollis male

#6 Eupeodes luniger male

Tormentil · #7 (**permalink**) 04-08-2011, 09:49 AM

Thanks very much for the ID's folks. I do have Stubbs & Falks, but find trying to key my hoverflies a tadge difficult. Maybe it's an age thing?

Geoff F · #8 (**permalink**) 04-08-2011, 10:31 PM

Some do take a bit of effort to identify; and a few are virtually impossible from photos.

What I usually do is to have a quick look through the illustrations to check that I am considering the correct family group then return to the full ID Keys for that group and try to work forward.

But the trouble with using keys which were designed to be used with actual specimens is that with a photograph I often end up saying 'I can't see that item'. So I have to run 2 or 3 threads at the same time and hope one leads to a confirmed answer.

With practice it is possible to identify many flying specimens, or at least get far enough to realise which camera angles are necessary for a later identification.