Hoverfly

A narrowly-built species of rather variable appearance. It is one of the first hoverflies to appear in spring, and these spring individuals are much darker than summer ones with the spots on tergites 3 & 4 small and well separated and those of tergite 2 usually reduced to a pair of oblique stripes. This form is termed 'maculicornis'. The summer form generally has larger spots on all tergites and those of T3 & 4 can be broadly fused to produce an appearance approaching M. cinctella. Darker forms appear again in autumn on Ivy flowers and are presumably the individuals that will overwinter.