RT MWeites: Two similar rove beetle species in one of the RestREco1 grassland suction samples. RT coleopterasam: It is #WeevilWednesday and #InternationalWomensDay! A great day to share this beautiful weevil from #Guatemala □□ and re… 1 week ago More info about recording UK hover flies can be found here.Įnter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Identification difficulty Habitat Well wooded hedgerows, woods and copses where it favours Bramble flowers and umbellifers. It has a striking ivory-white band across its middle and large dark spots on its wings. Over 270 species of hoverfly have been recorded in the UK and this is increasing by approximately one species per year. Description Sometimes called the Pellucid Hoverfly, this is one of the largest flies in Britain. On a warm summer afternoon like yesterday there was hardly a creature on the wing in the village nature reserve. My first Pellucid Hoverfly ( Volucella pellucens) of the year. Another Wall Lizard on the wall up to St Andrews Church And another Large Skipper, this time in the grounds of St Andrews Church A Six-spot Burnet Moth in the church grounds again. My first this year A Lackey moth caterpillar. The change is dramatic when compared with my youth and childhood which is a very long time ago. One of two Hornet Mimic Hoverflies seen today. The fully grown larvae will leave the nest and pupate in the soil. It is undeniable that there are fewer insects around than there used to be even ten or twenty years ago. After hatching her larvae will initially feed on the host’s young before dropping to the bottom of the nest chamber where they will scavenge a living by eating the remains of food brought in by the bees or wasps, waste products and even dead adults. Hoverflies are known to mimic the appearance and movements of insects like bees and wasps to stay protected from predators. The Pellucid Hoverfly (Volucella pelluscens) to the left is one of the biggest flies in Central Europe. In this article, we talk about whether hoverflies are harmful like their similar-looking insect friends, the sweat bees. The female lays her eggs in the underground nests of her hosts. Hoverflies in our garden with lots of pictures. This fairly common species is a predator of social wasps and bumblebees. Hoverflies belong to the family Syrphidae which is part of the order Diptera (true flies) from the Greek di = two, and ptera = wings. If there was no gap and the eyes were touching it would indicate a male. This is a female as it has a small gap between the eyes. Pellucid means transparent or translucent and in this instance refers to the ivory-white band across the abdomen, which if caught in the right light enables you to see through its middle. This and the dark spot on each wing makes this species quite easy to identify in the field. It occurs in much of Europe, and across the Palearctic to Japan. Here’s a photo of one of our largest flies, the Pellucid or Large Pied-hoverfly Volucella pellucens that I took back on the 8 July 2012 in Marlborough while I was in the middle of a RiverFly survey on the River Og. Volucella pellucens (also called the Pellucid Fly) is a hoverfly.
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