Posted by Juergen Peters on 24-03-2006 20:58
#4
Hello, Theo!
Zeegers wrote:
Your comma-syrphid is most likely Scaeva selenitica.
As the other two species, adults may hibernate.
Melangyna quadrimaculata definitely does not match your description (markings quite rectangular in that species).
Unfortunately I could only catch a short glimpse at it before it flew away, but it was definitely no
Scaeva. I know only the abundant
Scaeva pyrastri from here, which is much larger! And I never found it before May.
That fly yesterday was for sure a species, which I never saw before and which is not featured in my books, so I looked at www.syrphidae.com. The first species that resembled mine there was
Anasimyia transfuga with its tiny comma shaped spots (smaller than those of
Scaeva). But I do not know anything about that species and whether it flies so early in the year and appears here in Ostwestfalen. So I moved to the next resembling ones, which were
Melangyna quadrimaculata and
M. umbellatarum, which are very early flying species. The spots of
M. umbellatarum were too big, and additionally the general body shape and habit impression of the fly on the
M. quadrimaculatum-pic on
http://www.syrphi...ent=Europe were striking. Meanwhile I saw other photos of
M. quadrimaculata with orange-yellow markings (pics by Gerard Pennards), which let me question my first opinion. The three or four pairs of
small spots on the otherwise shining black body of "my" fly were pure white. I am even not sure if it was a Syrphid, but I don't find other flies resembling it...