PeterD wrote:
blowave wrote:
Hi Peter,
It's highly unlikely to be H. affinis, check the map and what is said about it here:
http://www.hoverf...c.php?t=90
The most common one is H. pendulus, the amount of yellow on the legs does suggest that. It looks like a male.
Apart from another extremely unlikely one, Helophilus groenlandicus, we only have H. pendulus, trivittatus and hybridus of which the latter two don't fit yours.
Janet :)
Thanks for your reply and info Janet.
I have looked up the Hoverfly recording data you linked to. The map shows only one siting in the Shetlands (not surprising when the movement of this species is from the Denmark area - south).Based on this info, I too think it unlikely to be H. affinis. I then looked up H. pendulus on the following site
http://cucaera.co...s+pendulus and compared images. There are distinct differences in the abdomen tail between my image and those on the site. The third tergite yellow markings are not straight (they are inclined upwards). The tail end of the abdomen lacks the additional black stripes shown on H. pendulus. The thickness of the horizontal lines is thinner on my image. In summary, unlikely or not, bears more in common with H. affinus. I do hope I am not making a fool of myself but my starting point was that I wanted to believe it was H. pendulus.
The keys use different criteria, and I think the angle of your fly is giving you the impression of an upward incline but looking at my pics they all look to have an upward incline and look just like yours. They do vary a little in the markings, but yours looks fairly typical for a male H. pendulus to me.
If searching for look-alike images, the best way to do that is to do a site search here which will more likely give confirmed images of H. affinis which is really the most appropriate image to be looking for.