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I know next to nothing (yet!) about diptera and other insects, but I'd like to know what this is. The photograph has been taken in The Netherlands last week. I have searched around on some of the amateur photo sites, but saw nothing that came even close - at least in my eyes. I am sure you specialists here will have no trouble with it.

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This is another picture. I'm really curious how I should look at this.

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This is Empis tessellata, one of the commonest and certainly the largest of the dance flies (Empididae) that are active in Northwestern Europe at this time of year. The male is easily recognizable by the striped thorax, yellowish base of the wing and the truncate abdomen.

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Thanks, Paul. I should have looked better on the other sites with photographs that I visited!

I read somewhere that male Empididae capture a prey and offer it to a female they want to mate with. Is this what I see in the second picture? In any case, it doesn't look like mating to me, but then again I'm a real beginner in this field. (Identifying insects, that is.)

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It may be the prelude to that. The male has a prey and may look for swarming female and hope to be selected. Then he can hand over his fly and it is time for-you-know-what.

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Thanks again.

I've learned a lot these last few days, trying to identify all the flies, bumblebees, bees and wasps I have photographed in the past year. It's a good incentive to try and get better pictures of more species.