12 September 2012

drone flies on ivy

Bored whilst waiting for Colletes hederae to appear, a non random collection of drone flies at Ivy from the Swansea foreshore turned out to be the following (all keyed from Stubbs and Falk using a x10 hand lens):

Eristalis tenax 4
Eristalis pertinax 2
Eristalis horticola 2
Eristalis interruptus 2
Eristalis arbustorum 5

Also:
Eupeodes corollae
Riponnensia splendens

I should do more of this because photos of tinies with their wings over their backs are almost impossible to identify!

3 comments:

Barry Stewart said...

I take it no Colletes then? I notice your first observation last year was 1st October. I'll keep an eye open for this one too...

i.f.tew said...

Not so far Barry, I've visited Oxwich Village and the Smuggler's Haunt Port Eynon a couple of times recently but the Ivy has barely started flowering yet.

Nigel Ajax-Lewis said...

Ivy flowering well in lane to entrance to WT Overton Mere NR [Wrongly signed Overton Cliff] in last week in August with hosts of hoverflies, bumblebees, Red Admirals, and other assorted diptera.

And including another bee which I was not sure about but will send over my hand held box brownie efforts for your perusal.

Nigel