Posted by blowave on 03-10-2010 16:22
#1
Hello,
It has orange at the base of femur 3, I had a male last year which also had orange there. I had convinced myself that it was a trick of the camera as it had orange hairs on the leg but this I don't think is a trick. In one pic from last year I can see pale hairs on the orange part.
This fits E. tenax is all other ways that I know of, the two rows of hairs on the eyes are not so visible from the face view but I think they can just be seen from behind. The two rows in the pic from last year could just be made out, although from a top view there was a definite row of thick hairs in a row going across those horizontally rather than vertically.
As there is no other it could be I think this has to be a variation, can anyone say if they know of such a variation?
3 pics + 1 crop of the hind leg. 30th September, my garden near Lincoln UK.
Janet :)
Posted by Menno Reemer on 03-10-2010 20:03
#5
This colour form actually has a name: var.
campestris Meigen (not a subspecies or any other taxonomically valid rank, just something like eye colour in humans etc.). I'm not sure how common it is, but certainly not rare.