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Many thanks Tim for a very helpful response and your link really spelled out how to identify this early season fly. I'd noticed that gentle curve in the medial vein and wondered if that was a significant character. In my garden, too, around 90% of the flies about are also males, with the few females getting a lot of attention..... and males are doing a lot of jumping on each other as well. I read elsewhere that this fly is a known pollinator of mistletoes, which blooms in Feb/March. see http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/t83364.htm Maybe ties in with the early season emergence.

Nick