Hoverfly round-up 2017

The hoverfly season is now over, you might get the odd records on fine autumn/winter days but the season is essentially over until March 2018, when I start recording all over again 😊. Below are a couple of graphs showing how the 2017 season fared against previous seasons. 2017 started off with a bang recording numbers and species well above previous years and this continued up until the end of August. This is when numbers plummeted due to two factors 1) The Welsh weather returned to its norm of long periods of mist and rain interspersed with big storms and strong winds 2) I was out of the country for 3 weeks in September. I recorded  13 new species during the year taking the valley total to 128.

Photos taken of some of the Hoverfly specimens determined by HRS

Before taking specimens of hoverflies I managed to photograph a few before potting, the ones below are a mixture of what can be done by photos and what can't. Of the 283 species in Britain only 125 can be identified from photographs with any confidence and the Hoverfly Recording Scheme [rightly so] will only accept records of the other 158 species if a specimen has been provided or you have proved yourself as a proven observer. Of the 126 specimens taken I still managed to get 4 wrong under magnification at home before sending them to Roger Morris including the Pipiza and Xylota below. Which just goes to show three years of intense study is still not enough to identify all hoverfly species. 

 Pipiza noctiluca - not conclusive from photo

 Cheilosia albitarsis - dark-legged variation, not conclusive from photo

 Chrysogaster solstitialis - can be ID'd from this photo

 Melangyna lasiophthalma -  can be ID'd from this photo

 Platycheirus Scutatus - can be ID'd to scutatus agg. [3 species] but no further from photo

Xylota jakutorum - the second tergite [body segment] looks longer than wider in the photo [squared in jakutorum] suggesting "florum" but the micro-hair colouring on the legs under magnification say otherwise. So these two species can't really be separated from photos.

Hoverfly specimens

I've just received back the list of hoverfly specimens that I had gathered through the year from Roger Morris of the Hoverfly Recording Scheme. There were eight new species for the valley taking our list to 128. We are getting ever closer to our goal of 150 [130 being the highest total for a Welsh 10km square. Our 2 - 10km squares stand at 102 & 100 per 2016 records]. The new species are recorded below, with a list of other species determined also.


121.   Cheilosia lasiopa - 08 May 17 - Bryn Cynan, Llangynwyd.

5th record for Glamorgan and first since 2010 [Swansea].

122.   Trichopsomyia flavitarsis - 19 May 17 - Bryn Cynan, Llangynwyd.

Common in Glamorgan, last record being in 2009 [Portenyon]

123.   Cheilosia ranunculi - 21 May 17 - Garnwen, Maesteg.

2nd record for Glamorgan, first being in 2006 [Portenyon]

124.   Cheilosia carbonaria - 14 Jun 17 - Blaencaerau, Caerau.

A new species for Glamorgan and only the 2nd record for Wales, the first being from Pembrokeshire in 2010.

125.   Platycheirus occultus - 21 Jun 17 - Darren Woods, Llangynwyd.

Common in Glamorgan, last recorded in 2014 [Neath]

126.   Cheilosia vernalis - 04 Jul 17 - Tir-Iarll Park, Llangynwyd.

Formerly very common in Glamorgan but mainly coastal, last recorded in 2009 [Portenyon]

127.   Pipiza noctiluca - 18 Jul 17 - Moel Troed-y-Rhiw, Llangynwyd.

Formerly common in Glamorgan but last recorded in 2002 [Blackwood]

128.   Eupeodes nitens - 22 Jul 17 - Lletty Brongu Woods, Llangynwyd.

Only the 2nd record for Glamorgan and 3rd for Wales, following records from 1993 [Bangor] and 1997 [Merthyr]


Other species determined included :-

Neoascia podagrica (7), Sphegina clunipes (3), Melanogaster hirtella (7), Parhelophilus versicolor (2)
Sphaerophoria interrupta (2), Platycheirus angustata (2), Syrphus vitripennis (5),
Platycheirus scutatus (4), Sphegina elegans (4), Cheilosia proxima (10), Sphaerophoria philanthus (2)
Pipizella viduata (1), Melangyna labiatarum (1), Chrysogaster solstitialis (1), Cheilosia albitarsis (1),
Xylota jakutorum (2), Myathropa florea (1), Dasysyrphus pinastri (1), Platycheirus albimanus (2)
Cheilosia scutellata (9), Cheilosia pagana (2), Orthonevra nobilis (2), Syrphus ribesii (3),
Eupeodes luniger (2), Eupeodes corollae (2), Chrysotoxum cautum (1), Platycheirus granditarsus (1),
Eupeodes latifasciatus (1), Xanthandrus comtus (1), Cheilosia impressa (1), Pipiza austriaca (1) and
Melanostoma scalare (1).

Pale Buzzard, My. Ty-talwyn

My. Ty-Talwyn, Llangynwyd was pretty quiet this afternoon, no evidence yet of large passage migration of Wood Pigeons and Thrushes or even Hawfinch, which are having an eruption year on the continent, and some experts say there could be as many as 400,000 on their way to Britain this winter. Did see 5 Redwing though, otherwise all the usual stuff like Skylark, Starling, Mistle Thrush, Corvids and 6 Raven. Quite a few Buzzard were about I counted 7 different individuals but no Kites. One of the Buzzards was very pale and always worth a second glance just in case.

Welsh Twitching

A few rare birds for Wales and Britain have turned up the last few days. So Colin, Sid and myself did a bit of twitching.

 13th October - Common Rock Thrush - 3rd record for Wales and British lifer for me [photo by permission from Colin Gittins] @ Pwll Du quarry, Blorenge, Gwent

14th October - American Golden Plover - Welsh tick for me - Gann Estuary, Pembrokeshire.

Halfway House. Llangynwyd Ivy now blooming

Some fine weather had me visiting again the Ivy Bank at the Halfway House on the way up to Llangynwyd. This time it was in full bloom. I recorded 11 species of Hoverfly, which is a good count for the time of year. There was also a little bit of Common Ragwort and Devil's Bit Scabious along the path. The Rhingia rostrata was still present, other good late records included 3 Sericomyia silentis, 3 Syrphus ribesii and 2 Helophilus pendulus.

 Sericomyia silentis

Helophilus pendulus


The other feature at this time of year are the moth leaf mines which become more noticeable with less greenery about. I have ID'd a few today including these below.

 Stigmella Tityrella on Beech

 underside of Hart's-tongue fern showed feeding signs of Psychoides verhuella/ filicivora - probably verhuella


Also present around the Ivy was 10+ Red Admiral and amongst the 30+ Honey Bee were 2 Ivy Bee a recent colonist of the valley.

 Red Admiral

Ivy Bee

From here I went up My. Ty Talwyn hoping for some bird migration, but the area was virtually void of birds. So I moved down to Parc Slip nature reserve and fared not much better, with the highlights being 1 Wigeon and 2 Eurasian Teal on the main pool. There was also a single Southern Hawker dragonfly but no hoverflies.