Flies On The Knops*
I saw a small copper butterfly by this clump of knapweed yesterday morning so returned this afternoon and sat on my upturned bucket hoping that it would revisit. No small copper but I spotted these two flies. I haven't done the one on the left justice. It is tiny and its eyes shone gold, as did the yellow markings on its body. I think it is a knapweed seedhead fly, Urophora quadrifasciata.
The other fly is quite similar to the burdock gall flies which I posted recently. It has six black spots on its thorax so I think it might be a false peacock fly, Chaetorellia succinea. It is ovipositing.
* Knapweed was originally knopweed from knop, because of its hard rounded involucre or ‘head’.
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