Lunch on Dartmoor

 My wife suggested a quick visit to Cornwall for tea with family, who were celebrating a birthday.

I suggested that, as we could not arrive sensibly before the end of work and school for them, we should break the journey on Dartmoor.

I knew just the spot, a site that could hold Eristalis cryptarum, one of the UK's rarest hoverflies. So after a cheese sandwich she went off with walking poles to reaquaint herself with the area, many years after we had first lived there as newlyweds.

I walked out into the rather bleak and certainly wet mire in search of flies


After 10 mins or so an obvious Eristalis (Drone Fly) landed in front of me. I rattled off a few pictures and then checked it with bins. Very much to my disappointment it was the very common Tapered Drone Fly (E pertinax) : a species that is common in my garden.


Tapered Drone Fly

I carried on searching seeing lots of tiny Fen Flies (Neoascia sp) and a single Blacklet of some kind


Fen Fly

These look like tenur the Black-kneed Fen Fly but I caught one to check as a microscope is needed here

Then I spotted a large yellow fly and this turned out to be The Yellow-barred Pond Fly (Sericomyia silentis) a species I had only seen once before. 




Yellow-barred Pond Fly


Better still:  a similarly sized but White marked fly the took off directly at my feet as I waded around.

I first thought this might be my quarry but in fact, after a short spell in my cold box, now empty of cheese sandwiches, it sat nicely for its portrait. This showed it to be the White-barred Pond Fly a very close relative of the yellow one. Mind you those white bars and especially the orange legs certainly had me feeling hopeful at first. Nevertheless its a smart fly and new to me bringing my year list to over 50.


White-barred Pond Fly

Seeing these two so close together was a real treat.



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