While watching the honey bees foraging on the snowdrops and looking out for my first bumblebee the other day I noticed several hoverflies on the flowers as well. With the help of the kind folks at the UK Hoverflies Facebook page they have been identified. This is Eristalis tenax ♀, a female drone fly. It is so called because it resembles a drone, a male honey bee. This might be Batesian mimicry but it seems odd that a female fly would disguise itself as a male honey bee (which doesn't have a sting). Perhaps it is just coincidence that it looks like a drone.
This one is a female Episyrphus balteatus, the marmalade hoverfly, presumably named for its colour.
The third one caused some difficulty but was identified as Syrphus torvus, also known as the hairy-eyed syrphus.
I hope I don't get too interested in hoverflies as there are nearly 300 UK species, although it will be good to see which ones turn up in the garden.
Very droll! We had swarms of honeybees on the Cornus mas in the sun yesterday - the buzz was terrific, both literally and metaphorically.
ReplyDeleteVery droll! We had swarms of honeybees on the Cornus mas in the sun yesterday - the buzz was terrific, both literally and metaphorically.
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