Chloropid Flies

With the warm weather in March I started to notice these small flies flying around the leaves of evergreen bushes on the edges of woodland.  I recognised them as Chloropidae but from the photos it was difficult to tell which genus they belonged to.

On the 27th I took a specimen and examined it under my new microscope:

This shows the scutellum under x60 magnification.  The shape of the scutellum and the arrangement of the two long hairs at the tip are characteristic of the genus Thaumatomyia (see here).  In the similar-looking Chlorops genus the top of the scutellum is more rounded and the hairs at the tip are shorter and less parallel (see the 3rd picture here).

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2012-03-22 (first) and 2012-03-27 (second and third).

Another Hoverfly

A female Eupeodes luniger (Diptera: Syrphidae).  Recognisable by the black inverted 'Y' on its frons (forehead) and by the fact that the yellow spots on the abdomen do not quite reach the lateral margins.  Identification by Janet 'blowave' here.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2010-09-19.

Hoverfly

A male Epistrophe eligans (Diptera: Syrphidae).  The golden thorax is the most obvious feature of this species.  The abdomen varies from almost all black, as with this one, to an almost Syrhpus-like banding (see here). The males tend to be darker than the females.

Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2012-04-01.

Flea Beetle

What I think is a willow flea beetle, Crepidodera aurata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).  Apparently the swollen hind femora enable it to jump like a flea.  This is probably a female because the males have black wing-cases.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-11-03.

Hoverflies

A female Leucozona glaucia (Diptera: Syrphidae). And this is a male of the same species:

Photos taken above Hutton Village, near Guisborough, North Yorkshire, UK, on 2010-08-10 (the female), and in Bousdale, also near Guisborough, North Yorkshire, UK, on 2010-08-08 (the male).