Batman

Myathropa florea

Another day, another hoverfly! This one is Myathropa florea, and though the books say it flies from May through November, we just spotted the first one for the garden on a water butt near the kitchen. It was quite an eye-catching insect, waggling its yellow-furred backside up and down as it sat near the rain-soaked cover of the container. Like many hoverflies, it's a wasp mimic; the yellow and black marks on its body presumably deter potential predators afraid of being stung, though the fly doesn't look very wasp-like to us humans. Like the other hoverflies we've managed to identify so far, this one is common and widespread across most of the British Isles. It's also one of the easier to identify. It shows the same strongly-looped vein as Helophilus pendulus (R4+5, particularly visible in the right wing above), and the black patch towards the back of its thorax (the part of the fly that the wings attach to) rather resembles the "Batman" symbol. Given the width of its rounded backside, it's probably a female; males are pointier at the end of their abdomen. Though typically a woodland species, it is opportunistic, and will breed anywhere it can find a suitably wet habitat for its "rat-tailed" aquatic larvae — including, apparently, the occasional water butt. Adults feed at a variety of flowering plants, but are particularly fond of umbellifers, like the towering 8-foot high fennel plants that currently loom over our herb garden. Hopefully, that means will be seeing this handsome wee beastie again!