Volucella inflata A Rare Hoverfly In My Kitchen
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
This fly was flying against the inside of our kitchen window late yesterday afternoon. At first I thought it was a flesh fly. However, the familiar profile of the Volucella head soon gave it away. It was the wrong colour and size (too small) for V. zonaria but I had no idea that it was of particular interest.
Apparently, in the UK, it is confined to some parts of Southern England and is associated with ancient woodland. (We do have a small, ancient wood five minutes drive away). It has the common name Cossus Hoverfly. Cossus means goat and it is associated with sap bleeding from trees damaged by the larvae of the goat moth Cossus cossus. V. inflata seems to be widely recognised as the rarest of the genus in the UK.
This fly was very agitated, wanting to get outside. It was moving around rapidly and framing it at all was difficult, as it was above head height. In the corner of the window frame, there was no room for my usual twin flash so I used a single gun. Yes, the light is harsh! Anyway, some of the images are worthwhile posting, not least because no macro forum seems to have images (unless you count Flickr).
This individual is a female. The images have been cropped variously, much of it to remove the bright window. (The cropped wings were cropped when framing the moving fly).
EM-1 (manual mode), Kiron 105mm macro, f11, flash.
Harold
Apparently, in the UK, it is confined to some parts of Southern England and is associated with ancient woodland. (We do have a small, ancient wood five minutes drive away). It has the common name Cossus Hoverfly. Cossus means goat and it is associated with sap bleeding from trees damaged by the larvae of the goat moth Cossus cossus. V. inflata seems to be widely recognised as the rarest of the genus in the UK.
This fly was very agitated, wanting to get outside. It was moving around rapidly and framing it at all was difficult, as it was above head height. In the corner of the window frame, there was no room for my usual twin flash so I used a single gun. Yes, the light is harsh! Anyway, some of the images are worthwhile posting, not least because no macro forum seems to have images (unless you count Flickr).
This individual is a female. The images have been cropped variously, much of it to remove the bright window. (The cropped wings were cropped when framing the moving fly).
EM-1 (manual mode), Kiron 105mm macro, f11, flash.
Harold
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