I parked up by the RSPB car park, where there was a female Eristalis tenax (pictured below) and another Eristalis, possibly Eristalis arbustorum, working some of the last of the Common Fleabane, Pulicaria dysenterica. There was also a female Sphaerophoria sp.
I left quite quickly and walked down to the sandy ride towards the heathland walk. The heather was not being as actively worked as my last visit and for example I would say that I saw a few Helophilus pendulus today, rather than many.
The Eupeodes male wandered around the patch of Tormentil, Potentilla erecta, and seemed to be taking nectar from the convex receptacle of the flowers, between the many stamens. The Rose family is often characterised by producing huge numbers of stamens with prodigious quantities of pollen in their anthers, but the more "advanced" genera also produce nectar on the gynophore, and that is what I assume I am seeing here.
I left quite quickly and walked down to the sandy ride towards the heathland walk. The heather was not being as actively worked as my last visit and for example I would say that I saw a few Helophilus pendulus today, rather than many.
The Eupeodes male wandered around the patch of Tormentil, Potentilla erecta, and seemed to be taking nectar from the convex receptacle of the flowers, between the many stamens. The Rose family is often characterised by producing huge numbers of stamens with prodigious quantities of pollen in their anthers, but the more "advanced" genera also produce nectar on the gynophore, and that is what I assume I am seeing here.
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