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Theo

I thought it might be P ambiguus because it does seem to me to have silver bands rather than spots. I keyed it through Stubbs, and it seems clearly different to one I have identified as P albimanus from the same day and site. It is a smaller, finer fly than my P albimanus. I believe I am familiar with P albimanus as they appear to be one of the species I got in my garden regularly when I first started getting interested in flies a few years ago, but I am not sure I have ever seen P ambiguus before - my record keeping has been a bit haphazard over the years, and I am never overly confident of my ID skills.

I know it does not come out well in the photo, and that I should soften her up and pin her properly so you can see the diagnostic features. However, my husband has an aversion to sharing the house with small creatures with pins sticking out of them, and I am so out of practice that I just don't do it anymore. (He can just about cope with flies in tubes in the fridge waiting to be identified and photographed. Indeed, until very recently, he kindly did all my photography for me - but he's bored with flies now - too many little grey muscidanthos, not enough huge colourful asilids.)

BTW Paul I am very sorry, but I see that I have carelessly put several Syrphid queries into the Diptera Adult stream. If you can bear it, could you move them?