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Hi, I took the following images in April this year in south western France. I'm fairly sure it's a female Eristalinus, is it possible to say which species it is (and are there more species in the genus than the two we get in the UK (sepulchralis and aeneus))?




(larger versions of the images can be seen by right clicking on them in flickr)

Many Thanks

Will

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Hi!! Your Eristalinus is indeed a female, the species is Eristalinus aeneus.

There are 4 species of Eristalinus in Western Europe.

- Eristalinus taeniops: unique, striped eyes.
- Eristalinus megacephalus: unique, spotted eyes and abdomen with orange areas.
- Eristalinus aeneus: difficult to separate from E. sepulchralis, but males have eyes joined together (separated in sepulchralis) and females have eyes completely bare in the lower part and shiny bronzy abdomen.
- Eristalinus sepulchralis: much smaller (average) than aeneus, both sexes have separated eyes but both have very hairy eyes.

Hope this helps :)

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Brilliant, thank you very much for the identification and particularly for the information so that I know what to look for in future.

Will

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A pleasure! :)