Should pay more attention

 I went over to Stockhill which is a conifer plantation next to Priddy Mineries as last year the rides held a wide variety of hoverflies. It was a bit early in the year perhaps as the only flowers around seemed to be buttercups with the odd piece of Cow Parsley.


Walking out of the car park I noticed a hoverfly run across a leaf. I assumed it was an Orange-belted Leafrunner and moved on. 


I then noticed another in a Buttercup flowerhead and took a couple of photos.



Leafwalker Hoverfly

After an hour or so on site photographing Blacklets and Aphideaters I saw another and decided to take better pictures at home so I caught it.

At home I gave it a whiff of CO2 and put it down on a piece of wood on the garden table to get closer images. While doing this I thought something seemed a bit off so I put it through Obsidentify which suggested Xylota floriens which would be super rare here.

Very fortunately it had not flown off so I retrapped it for closer attention. It was then that I finally nailed it as Spruce Stump-walker ( Xylota jakutorum ). 





Spruce Stump-walker


This species used to be Northern but appears to be moving South along with the maturing conifer plantations and these two seem to be the 2nd and 3rd local sightings. One I very nearly dismissed.

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