Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Eristalis tenax ?, 0 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
The link just takes you to the picture (or near) of an Eristalis, they are in the family Syrphidae. There are many different Genus and speices in the family.

The Eristalis key which I mentioned is in the section under all of the pictures, #10, it no longer exists but the keys can give you the clues you need, sometimes though you have to have a specimen to determine at which angle the hairs on a leg go!

This was useful when I ID'ed some, such as E. arbustorum has a near white face, E. pertinax has a broader dark stripe down the centre of the face than E. tenax, it also has a triangular shaped tail and yellow on the tibia on the hind legs. Such a shame it isn't available!

Yours are all female, in Eristalis the male's eyes are noticably together and large, although near the back where they join there is always a small 'knob' the eyes meet well in the middle.

Here is an example, female on the left, male on the right. I haven't positively ID'ed this one, but think it could be E. similis purely by comparison, I have no key!