Ectinorhynchus … low-flying, breeding swarms are a common sight in October.

Aleucosia, one of dozens of species in this genus.

perhaps Gynoplistia … and not a species we’ve seen before

Meomyia fasciculata (perhaps) … but certainly a species we’ve not noticed before.

We’re seeing this rather small, plain bee fly quite often of late … but it’s not a species we know.

Systoechus perhaps??

Staurostichus. Reasonably large, reasonably common.

Meomyia albiceps, arguably our most common bee fly – but apparently less widespread or well known than the similar-looking Meomyia sericans.

Meomyia albiceps. Paul noticed several of these bee flies repeatedly hovering and landing on a patch of firm soil. He has done some follow up reading and is planning a blog about this quite fascinating behaviour. It’s not quite what one might think!

Villa. This genus has a worldwide distribution, although I suspect that most of our species are endemic. The larvae develop inside their insect hosts: usually caterpillars, but sometimes fly larvae or beetle grubs.