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Hi,

I was hoping someone here might help me find out what some of these are.

All found a few days ago down in West Sussex,in a nice spot where a meadow meets woodland and a stream.

I've put them up onto a free image hosting site,so i hope the links work ok.



http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075217L&t=jpg&rand=1854&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075219L&t=jpg&rand=3117&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075221L&t=jpg&rand=6335&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075224L&t=jpg&rand=6712&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075226L&t=jpg&rand=2047&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075229L&t=jpg&rand=2104&srv=img2

http://www.glowfoto.com/viewimage.php?y=2006&m=07&img=13-075231L&t=jpg&rand=8808&srv=img2




The first and last ones were about bluebottle sized,
The third one was prob only about 5mm at most,
The bee looking one was about the length of an average bee.

yikes

Heres my (very) uneducated guess about a few:
One of them looks like it could maybe be a bottle fly?another looks like and behaved like a bee,but i've not been able to find anything similar online?and i suspect that one is maybe a robber fly?

Thankyou :-)

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Hi... just as a courtesy to forum readers could you post each image on a different thread and actually upload the image... it gets very tedious copy/pasting links and the images will remain on this site for the archives, even if you change your photo host :) Also, with such a big list of photos it's going to get confusing to link names to photos. B)
Thanks

But to answer your question, I think they are:
1 & 2: Mesembrina meridiana (family Muscidae) - the 'Meridian Fly' (common)
3: family Anthomyidae
4 & 5: Volucella pellucens (family Syrphidae) - a rather nice hoverfly
6: family Asilidae (robber flies) - someone from the asilid group will be able to ID this I think
7: family Callaphoridae (green-bottle)

:)

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you just cant win sometimes!

I actually put them up on that site because i thought that me posting several threads or uploading lots of pics might annoy or use too much space.

Oh well...only my first post...I'll know next time.

Thankyou for the ID's anyhoo.

That hoverfly was very nice looking i agree,wasnt at all camera shy either which was good.

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it's OK ... we like photos here so keep posting ;) sorry I couldn't do more with the anthomyid, asilid or callaphorid but they're not really my expertise :) The Volucellas are all over the place at the moment so look out for other large bee/wasp mimics with only 2 wings. You might like to browse the gallery and look at the various syrphids there too.

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Hi fleabag,

Nice to see your post with good images. For future posts, please read http://www.dipter...eadmore=49. ;)

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Number 3 belongs to genus Anthomyia and it is probably A. pluvialis.

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Hi fleabag
Just had a look at the asilid. It appears to be a male Machimus, either cingulatus or atricapillus.

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Many thanks for the help.


Hoping to find a few more soon.


I really enjoyed the robber flies,something quite satisfying about photographing them too,with all those interesting lumpy,hairy bits and segments.


A problem i often have when photographing insects with my point and shoot camera's macro function,is the auto focus sometimes misses by miles,i can use manual focus but it takes a while longer,not always ideal with moving subjects.I wonder why it happens.


regards.