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Hi,

4 pics from 7th May 2009, my garden near Lincoln UK. He was a regual visitor.

We only appear to have four Hydrophoria species, H. silvicola, H. ruralis, and H. linogrisea besides assuming of course it is Hydrophoria which I think it is.

Janet:)

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pic 2

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pic 3

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pic 4

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I think you're right. Dark legs rules out both linogrisea and silvicola. And ruralis has first two tergites yellow (and the rest dark).

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Thanks Lars, I have checked my other pics which I have named H. lancifer and found one which at first looks to have some yellow on the abdomen, but after looking again I think it's the way the light falls through the wings. I was starting to wonder about this one as they were taken on the same day a few hours apart!;)

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It is Hylemya vagans or urbica. Hydrophoria species have the disc of scutellum setulose and the acrostichal setae have setulae between the rows. Difficult to separate vagans and urbica from a photo, the latyter has darker legs with only a varying trace of orange on hind tibia.

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Thank you Michael, it will have to have two names then.;) How very similar they are, you really have to know what to look for!:|

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Naming anthos under the microscope can be difficult if you are not familiar with the characters; doing it from a photo just makes it almost impossible in many cases. It is the rather like putting a piece of frosted glass on the eye-piece, so that some of the bristles are blurred!

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I am constantly amazed at all the knowledgeable people on here who can identify from photos of these difficult flies. Having to resize the pics doesn't make it any easier, but in most cases I can crop to maximum the areas which need to be seen more closely if I know what needs to be seen.;)

It does seem that in many cases a set of good pics doesn't give the results a single pic can give, I have often been reluctant to post with only one pic but get an ID!:D