Flies

The hedge is literally buzzing at this time of year because the Ivy is in flower. But no photos of Ivy mining  bees, this is about various flies (mostly because my macro was behaving well).

A few photos of bottoms but so shiny I think it’s fine 🙂 I think it’s a Chrysosomopsis auratus or Neomyia cornicina but I really can't be sure. Some of the identification involves the hairs on the thorax, but it’s a bit too intricate.

These are photos of two separate green bottles, house flies or Muscidae. They may be different species or the one that is more green than bronze may be because it is younger. You can see it supping the nectar like the one in the top photo.

And this is another housefly. None of these are welcome when they come indoors, but I like seeing them up close in the hedge.

Quite amazing, aren’t they? This may be a Helina Pertusa, but there are so many thousands of diptera (flies) that I can't be sure.

And this last fly isn’t a housefly, it’s a Tachina Fera, a parasitoid fly, I believe.

To be honest, I wish I hadn’t investigated further. Some of these parasitoids' hosts are more welcome on the plot. Parasitoid, as opposed to parasitic, means that the host is killed and some of these are nasty, but not to humans or vegetables.

Actually, all of these are welcome on the plots really, although they seem to prefer the hedge. They're all good for pollinating but these visitors tend to arrive in Autumn so there's not much on our allotment plot to interest them.