sun lover

...we have had a long and busy day finalising and photocopying, checking and rechecking, loads of documents and complicated Home Office forms - on the positive side, all this was done while the rain fell outside and, by the time we were finished, it had brightened up.

As predicted, today's image is also from Ballard Down. This one of our larger hoverflies and is a species of Helophilus, which is latin for sun lover. The trouble is that I cannot decide whether it is pendulus or trivittatus. I have keyed it several times but I'm still not sure. The yellow face suggests the former, while the yellow margins at the rear of tergites 2, 3, and 4 point to the latter. One thing I am now sure of, is that I identified this one incorrectly on the 16th August as it is trivittatus...