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This one was sitting on a leaf making a buzzing sound and others were congrigating near it. From time to time it took off and fought (?) the others.

Is it male or female? How can I tell the difference? I've got some nice in flight pictures, I hope I have both sexes, but it's probably not. No copulation pics though.

In all excitement I forgot to add: Norway & July

Thanks

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This is a male Episyrphus balteatus.

You can tell males from females by the spacing of their eyes. Males have their eyes close together.
The coloration of the abdomen is also a little different. Females have (at least the ones I've seen) some pale stripes between the black stripes.
Males are also generally smaller than females.

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Ok, so I probably only saw males then. I hoped the different behaviour was courtship.

Do you agree that these are both males:

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and this

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No, those appear to be females. Note the paler parts (stripes) on the abdomen). But it's hard to tell from that angle.

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Both are defenitely males. Paler parts are NO character to use, because this species can be very variable and there are no differences between males and females!
The eyes are meeting for a considderable distance. And, though small, you can see that it has genitalia at the tip of the abdomen...

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I was really hoping that I got in-flight pics of both sexes, since they look slightly different.

This is a female, right?