During Monday’s walk along the local section of the Wales Coastal Path, I spotted my first hoverfly of the year, and immediately got the identification wrong. It seems that every winter I forget the basics for these creatures and have to refresh my memory over and over again (old age, or hoverfly blindness?).
In my defence, these are two very similar species but it took a friendly follower on Twitter to remind me that, for the hoverfly I found, the ‘feet are darker than E.[Eristalis] pertinax and it has a bendy rear tibia and hairy bands on its eyes so this is Eristalis tenax‘. (The ‘foot’ is the final segment of the leg.) To remind me, and help you, I’ve included comparison photos below – Eristalis tenax, he of the darker front feet, is on the left, and Eristalis pertinax, with the pale feet, is on the right.
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