Pied hoverfly

At the higth of summer, I occasionally see this stunning hoverfly, the easy to recognise Scaeva pyrastri. I am going to follow NatureSpot and others and use a common name, Pied Hoverfly, although swift hoverfly would be equally fitting to this migrant, quick flier. It is that time of the year when each flower in the garden is being visited by hoverflies, and the flowering fennel is attracting quite a few.

Zebra-striped hoverfly

It is unfortunate that not many hoverflies have English names - only the Marmalade Hoverfly and the Large Narcissus Fly come to mind. However, this large hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri, with its very distinctive bold black and white abdominal pattern and hairy eyes could be named the Zebra-striped hoverfly, as suggested by John Wall in BugGuides. It is a high summer hoverfly, I have only seen it in July and August, and is a regular immigrant from the continent, and comes here to breed. It can feed on both tubular, deep flowers, like Red Valerian, Verbena bonairensis, Agapanthus and Lavender and also on flat ones like Fennel. Today's was the first of the year.

Swift hoverfly settled down for the night

This hoverfly species, Scaeva pyrastri, is a challenging photographic subject. I find it particularly flighty, and many a time I have chased it across the garden as it fed on Verbena bonairensis, Buddleia, Hebe or Red Valerian. It is very aware of shapes approaching, and it cunningly and swiftly flies out of range. You really have to stalk it for close ups. S. pyrastri is a migrant hoverfly which flies from the continent to rear a generation in northern Europe and all my records are of July and August, of single individuals. Their numbers vary greatly from year to year. It is a large, handsome hoverfly, males giving the impression of having a disproportionately larze head (as above) due to their enormous eyes, which are distinctively hairy, and like in other hoverflies meet on top of their heads. The species has very characteristic white markings in the black abdomen. Adults are found in a range of flowers, while the larvae feeds on ground aphids. This male had chosen to settle in the startlingly red rowan berries and it allowed me to approach to the minimum focusing distance of my camera.