Identification?

[steve_e]

Excuse the ignorance but what is this?

 

[Luminos]

It's a hoverfly.
Or did you mean the plant?

 

[steve_e]

No, the insect, thanks Luminos! Don't know why I didn't know that, but there were a whole bunch of them sucking up the nectar from a herb yesterday and they just looked really alien.

 

[iombeeman]

sharp photo,very clear.

 

[garlicpickle]

It is a drone fly Eristalis tenax

 

[Chris Luck]

Errr, sorry, one nil to the French contingent.

Eristalis tenax is a European hoverfly.

and I don't think it's tenax either, wrong markings, perhaps Eristalis lineata

Chris

 

[garlicpickle]

it is a hoverfly but is commonly known as a dronefly because it.....well because it looks like a drone

Its larva is the rat tailed maggot which lives in stagnant ponds and breathes through its long snorkel type tail.

 

[steve_e]

Thanks iombeeman. Helped by some very crisp late afternoon sunshine!

 

[richardbees]

Its larva is the rat tailed maggot.....

Lisa, thank you for that little nugget of information. I've got a couple of small ponds and spend hours in the summer holidays with children looking at 'wrigly things'

Fantastic photo, Steve

 

[Suzi Q]

A second thank you, Lisa, I often wondered what those disgusting things were in the bottom of my bucket of comfrey tea. Nice to know they turn into beautiful hoverflies.

 

[Andy Duff]

it's a photograph, no it's a fantastic photograph

 

[garlicpickle]

A second thank you, Lisa, I often wondered what those disgusting things were in the bottom of my bucket of comfrey tea. Nice to know they turn into beautiful hoverflies.

i've never seen one, although we get quite a lot of hoverflies in the garden including these ones. Guess my pond isn't stagnant enough, and I had to cover the top of the water butt because there were 1000s of mozzies breeding in there and making our lives hell everytime we went outside!

 

[justme]

Just get a couple of bogstandard goldfish to put in your water butt, they'll keep them down, the mozzies that is:.)

i've never seen one, although we get quite a lot of hoverflies in the garden including these ones. Guess my pond isn't stagnant enough, and I had to cover the top of the water butt because there were 1000s of mozzies breeding in there and making our lives hell everytime we went outside!

 

[margob99]

I've seen one of these hover flies lurking around the hive in the last couple of days; yesterday it even seemed to be trying to sneak in! lol