When is a bee not a bee?

When it's a Greater bulb fly - Merodon equestris.  I'm not so sure if this is a newly emerged male or female fly or a female ovipositing/egg laying as she was clinging to the dying leaves of the tete a tete daffodil leaves.  She was very easy to see as I was weeding and just looked to be the same size as a bumble bee. The hairs on the body seemed to not be as fluffy as a bumble bees and they looked as if they had been combed with a slither of brylcreem cream.   

Now most of the time I don't really know one bee from another never mind the hoverflies that mimic them so I have to thank Ispot at the Open University for helping me with the ID.  This is one little Syrphid fly that I don't want anywhere near my snowdrop or daffodil bulbs as once the grubs hatch they will burrow into the bulbs and eat the middle section including next years flowers.  A while back I wrote about these flies in relation to snowdrop bulbs (the post is here if you are interested).

Merodon equestris
This could be a female Syrphid due to the structure of the eyes.

The RHS advise  placing netting over the dying leaves of the daffodils to prevent the fly from laying the eggs around the leaf bases - but for me that's just not practical as I've too many clumps. They also advise growing the bulbs in a shady location and this clump of bulbs isn't in the shade. The flies like to lay their eggs near the soil so having ground cover plants hiding the lower leaves of the bulbs could be a useful deterrent.  That could also be an excuse on my part to justify the buying of more plants!

Merodon equestris
There is something strange going on around the mouth area - can you see that too just below the forearms?

While we're on the subject of eggs and hatching last week the first of the Orange tip butterfly caterpillars (the post is here if you are interested)  were grazing on the wild mustard seedheads along the lade.  This little chap was about 1 cm long.

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Edit to add that Gail from Clay and Limestone is going to try to deter these flies by adding coffee grounds around the bases of the leaves as she has spotted this fly on her Bluebells.  I might try that aswell.  If you have used the coffee grounds or a different way of detering these flies please let us know in the comment section.

This is going to be a slow blog during June  as we are counting the days until our son's wedding and there is still lots to do.  I hope you'll forgive me for being very slow at returning comments and missing many of your blog posts for the next few weeks. Once I get on the internet time flies and I have such a long list of "to do things" before the big day that I really will have to discipline myself in regards to blogging if I'm going to get everything done on time.

Thanks again for visiting and until next time be on the lookout for those flies that buzz!

"Ever since the creation of the world  his eternal power and divine nature, invisible  though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has  made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:20

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