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This one had me fooled. I thought it was for sure a Xylota or related genera, but in the photograph it has Eristalinae wing venation. So, is this Merodon avidus?
Nebian, Herault, France.
Flying under dappled shade in open srcub and orchards.
It took me almost two and a half hours to get this photo of this fly!!

The good news is I managed to collect a specimen - hurrah!

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view two:

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Hello,

See my post http://www.dipter...ad_id=7675 with a couple in copula.

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The antenna doesn't match Pierre's Merodon avidus.

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Hi Crex,
How are the antenna different? To me they look quite similar. I can check my specimen if this is a useful character for defining the species.

I see that the female is quite a different looking fly to the male. I saw about ten males all patrolling their own small piece of airspace, but no females were present, so presumably the flies I sa were quite freshly emerged.

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Your fly has a pink antenna. Pierre's flies has almost black antenna, but if that is a useful character I don't know.

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Hello,

Next day, I saw another quite similar fly:

Pierre Duhem : France : 19/7/2007 : Bessans : 73480
altitude : 1800 m - taille : 10-12 mm
ref=22710

This time, the antenna is more whitish-pink. On the other hand, St?phane Lebrun told me he keyed the couple according to the female, not the male.

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Maybe Gerrard will see this thread and help us out?

Meanwhile, I have just downloaded a key to thirty species of Iberian Merodon, so may be able to ID my specimen.

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I ran the specimen through the key to thirty Iberian species of Merodon and it fits Merodon avidus quite well.:)