Here are a few of my favourite inverts from May 2017, almost all taken locally and likely to be mainly hoverflies but also anything else which takes my fancy, starting with a non-hoverfly contender for the invert of the year award....
Dark-edged Bee fly
Bombylius major Pennington Park 8th May 2017. What an amazing creature, my first was at Penington Flash but this was a much better view.
Chrysotoxum festivum is a largely southern species of hoverfly which is spreading north. This individual was photographed at Pennington Flash.
This is the hoverfly
Microdon myrmicae /
mutabilis photographed at Torbarrow Quarry near Leighton Moss. These are a pair of hoverflies which are not seperable at the adult stage even from specimens, and identification can only be confirmed at the larval stage. However Ball and Morris in "Britains Hoverflies" state that the only confirmed records of
M.mutabilis are from Northern Scotland (Mull and Inverness), whereas
M.myrmicae is scarce but widespread. Therefore I was going to say it's most likely
M.myrmicae due to locality, but then I noticed that Alan Stubbs states that a larvae of
M.mutabilis was found at nearby Gaitbarrows and is in the Liverpool museum. Stubbs also states that the ecology of the 2 species are "very different", with
M.mutabilis prefering "dry well drained sites, including limestone pavement" whereas
M.myrmicae occurs on "wet heaths and poor wet grassland". Both Gaitbarrows and Trowbarrow are limestone, though the latter is a disused quarry. I realise that this doesn't prove it either way, and we'll bever know for sure from an adult specimen, but surely it sways the arguement more towards
M.mutabilis?
Microdon myrmicae /
mutabilis
Microdon myrmicae /
mutabilis
The hoverfly
Anasimyia lineata 11th May 2017
. This was one of the
highlights of the early part of the season, we found a decent size colony of these hoverflies on bramble and buttercups at the side of Pennington Flash, adjacent to Sorrowcow Pond.
The long snout of
Anasimyia lineata stands out well in this photo.
These hoverflies can easily be picked up where they occur by their comical and interesting courtship behavoiur. The male searches for a perched female, which when found he buzzes around for a while before dropping down suddenly and taping her abdomen as if to let her know he is there. Then he rises up and buzzes around again whilst the female repositions herself to allow the male to drop down and mate. It's all over in a second, though the male usually continues to buzz around the female and often drops down to mate again over a period of a few minutes.
This male
Anasimyia lineata looks yellow because it is covered in pollen.
Rhingia campestris, a hoverfly with an even longer snout! I've been trying to find one of these for a while, and finally managed it in a glade on the south side of Pennington Flash.
Although it will probably visit a varierty of flowers of all colours, this species seems to prefer pink flowers.
Rhingia campestris.
Leucozona lucorum. Another new species for me, a very easy insect to identify, until you see an individual which has a completely dark abdomen, like the male in the following photo.
Male
Leucozona lucorum at Pennington Hall Park.
Myathropa florea on wild garlic.
The hoverfly
Merodon equestris, a bee mimic, Burton Mere Wetlands 2017.
Merodon equestris
This is also
Merodon equestris but probably of the variety
narcissi. Amazing that the same species of hoverfly can mimic several differnt species of bee.
Here's another bee mimic, the not so convincing
Eristalis intricaria.
Epistrophe eligans
The metallic green hoverfly
Lejogaster metallina at Burton Mere Wetlands
Lejogaster metallina
Eristalinus sepulchralis another new species of hoverfly for me in May, and another species from Sorrowcow pond at Pennington Flash. It's one of only two species with pale eyes with dark spots.
The hoverfly
Tropidia scita. One of the main identification features of this hoverfly is the small tooth on the rear edge of the hind femora. Although it occurs on many wetland plants, it seems to particularly like the flowers of yellow iris. This individual was at Leighton Moss, but they are a widespread species and also occur at Pennington Flash.
Swollen-thighed beetle
Oedemera nobilis
Water lily leaf beetle on the Leeds/Liverpool canal at Pennington Flash.
Xysticus cristatus sitting in wait for any unwary insect which might visit its flower.
Tree bumblebee.
Picture-winged fly sp. at Pennington Flash.
Banded demoiselles. This is the first time I have managd to photograph a pair mating.
This male banded demoiselle was guarding a female while she egg layed. He flicked his wings like this to partially ward off other males, but also to encourage the female to lay.
Female banded demoiselle egg laying. The reason for the colouration of the female is obvious when you see one egg laying.
Male broad-bodied chaser.
Azure damselfly at Sorrowcow pond, Pennington Flash.
Blue-tailed damselfly
Anania funebris, white spotted sable, one of the most beautiful of all moths, photographed here at Gait barrows. This is one of the pyralid moths.
The moth
Pseudopanthera macularia Speckled yellow at Gait barrows.
Battered it may be, and this red-necked footman
Atolmis rubricollis. may never fly again, but it was a first for me. This is a migrant species of moth, probably brought into the north west, in this case Trowbarrow, by the recent hot weather and south easterly winds.
Small pearl-bordered fritillary.
