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I am still in my Cornish exile and for lack of "hunting" time, continuing trying to put names on the contents of my "unknown" folder. Here in this and the following post are four Syrphidae. Some are very similar and I did even wonder if they might be variants of the same species, but you'll certainly know better than me! Here then are the first two.





Sarah

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Daer Sarah,

this is Spaerophoria scripta, first a male, the second a female. scripta is the most abundant species of this genus.


Gisela

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Thank you again Gisela, in this case I immagine it is the very different shape of the abdomen that differentiates the sexes? Sarah

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Yes, that is right. In the male you clearly see the genitals, forming a big knob at the end of the abdomen.
Where Sph. scripta males also differs from similar species in the length of their abdomen (clearly longer than wings when stretched along the abdomen), most other Spaerophoria species can only be differentiated with certainty by looking at the genitals. The genitals can be preparated quite easily.
Females of most other Sphaerophoria-species can not or only hardly be separated from eachother (only scripta, loewi, rueppellii and estebani can be differentiated with certainty from other species).