My guide book, Britain’s Hoverflies (Ball and Morris, Princeton, 2015) says the Melangyna ‘is a challenging genus with several species which are very difficult to identify’, and I thought ‘Just my luck! I might as well give up now’.

Fortunately, I didn’t, and, as this particular species has a shiny thorax and pale, almost white abdominal markings, it proved easier than expected to identify my first ever hoverfly from this genus. This little beauty has now been confirmed as Melangyna umbellatarum, a female that was egg-laying on Hogweed in Cardiff’s Heath Park last week.

You may just be able to spot one of her tiny white eggs above her head in the top photo, and I was able to get a close up (photo above). This was also the first time I’d observed a hoverfly laying her eggs.