Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes.   Male.  West Wickham Common, 3 April 2016.

SOme early bees are out and about, and the one with the best name is the Hairy-footed Flower Bee.  It's about the same size as a bumble-bee worker, but it's too early in the year for the workers to be flying, so if you think you see one it might be this.  This is the male, a furry bee of a light buff colour.  This photo shows off the hairy feet pretty well.

Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes.   Female.  West Wickham Common, 3 April 2016.

The female is much darker, but has a distinctive light tuft on its leg.

Both these bees are working through a patch of Red Dead-nettle, which is currently in full flower.   Other insects also come to these flowers; this one ..

Bombus terrestris, Buff-tailed Bumblebee.   Queen.  West Wickham Common, 3 April 2016.

is a bumble-bee.  It's a queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee, foraging to feed its first batch of larvae.  It is twice the length of the flower bees and could not be mistaken for one.

There are also some other mid-sized flyers around.  For example, bee-flies; as the name suggests, they are flies, not bees.  I didn't manage to photograph the one I saw on April 3rd, so here is a shot from 2014.

Beefly, Bombylius major.  Churchyard of the Church of St. Mary,  Kemsing, 12 April 2014.

It's the same size as the flower bees, and about the same colour as the male, but those stiffly held wings with the dark band are quite distinctive. 

More flies from 2015

Fly, family Muscidae.  In my light trap in Hayes on 25 August 2015

Some flies from my garden light trap.  I'm not that good at identifying flies, but this one looks to me like something from the family Muscidae.   They look a lot more bristly and unapproachable in closeup than when they are flying around, not that you'd probably want to approach them too closely anyway.

In this photo you can see one of the halteres quite clearly.  It's the yellow projection just under the root of the wing.  Flies have only one pair of wings (whereas wasps and bees have two), and in place of the second pair are these counterweights on the end of stalks, which vibrate in such a way as to offset the movement of the wings and thus smooth out the creature's flight.

Cranely, family Tipulidae.  In my light trap in Hayes on 5 October 2015

 Craneflies have big long wings that need big long stalks on their halteres to make them an effective counterbalance.

Hoverfly, Syrphus vitripennis.  In my light trap in Hayes on 15 September 2015

However much a hoverfly might look like a wasp or a bee, those stripes are all bluff.  If you can see the halteres you know it's a fly, and flies don't sting.  (But some of them will try to suck your blood, which is nearly as bad.  Hoverflies do not do this.)

Broad Centurion, Chloromyia formosa. In my light trap in Hayes on 18 June 2015.

Here are two quite pretty iridescent green flies. Like many shiny insects, they are actually quite hairy when seen close to.  Soldier flies probably got their common name from this shiny appearance.  It could not be from their behaviour.  They feed on nectar and are often rather inactive.

Soldier Fly, probably Dull Four-spined Legionnaire, Chorisops tibialis. In my light trap in Hayes on 18 June 2015.

This second one has four spines radiating from the back of the plate over its thorax.  There are two very similar species and it's pretty much a guess on my part which one this is.

Finally ..

Flat-footed Fly, Opetia nigra.  Female.   In my garden light trap in Hayes on 13 August 2015

Much to my surprise, this photo caused something of a stir among fly experts.  I was informed that there is only one other photo of a living female specimen on the web (though now there is more than one of this particular specimen).  So now I'm glad I took this shot, which was just an offhand one-handed snap of a fly sitting on the light bar of my trap as I picked it up in the morning, to get at the moths inside.  I will watch out for more of these next year!

Although it's called a Flat-footed Fly, when I looked it up I found that it is the only member of its genus which does not actually have flat feet. 

Non-Moths of 2015 - Flies from Sevenoaks

Unidentified fly in the light trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 5 July 2015

I haven't been taking pains with flies, mostly because I know so little about them.  Some of my fly photos, inclusing a couple of these, are still unidentified, even this one, though it looks quite distinctive.  If any viewer does know any of these anonymous flies, please leave a comment!

This post shows some flies from the light trap behind Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve visitor centre.

Unidentified fly in the light trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 24 September 2015

Another unidentified specimen, this time perhaps because the photo does not show many helpful features.

Fly, family Anthomyiidae, in the light trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 24 December 2015

For some reason, some of the photos taken with my marvellous new camera are still blurred.  I have not worked out why.  Am I moving the camera relative to the subject, perhaps?  These are all taken with a heavy camera held in one hand, holding an egg box in the other, which is not a particularly steady arrangement, so I might try a faster shutter speed.

This and the next fly were identified to family on iSpot, and the final one is one of the few I can identify myself.  These last three were all in the light trap on a December day when there were no moths, so they were all I had to photograph!

Lesser Dung Fly, family Sphaeroceridae, in the light trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 24 December 2015

 Another slightly blurry shot.  At least this last one (below) is sharp enough.  These Yellow Dung Flies are quite pretty.

Yellow Dung Fly, Scathophaga stercoraria, in the light trap at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, 24 December 2015

This post is probably rather samey to most viewers, so I will try something different next time.