Tuesday 18 June 2013

Marmalade fly ovipositing

Aphids are everywhere now, under tree leaves, on herb stems and on tender bush shoots. But they have many enemies. Amongst them, many hoverfly species are busy egg laying, carefully choosing their oviposition sites to be next to rows of fat aphids. This is my first photo of the year of a Marmalade Fly, Episyrphus balteatus: a female laying on a Wood Avens stem full of aphids. It was the only shot I took before she flew away. Soon their voracious larvae will be munching aphids away.

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