Pellucid - What A Lovely Word

I'm on a roll. I haven't knowingly seen or photographed this hoverfly before but I guessed its identity without recourse to the internet or reference books. I think it's a pellucid hoverfly, also known as the great pied hoverfly and the pied plumehorn. It is said that, in the right light, one can see through the pellucid or translucent area of its abdomen. These flies are fond of brambles. This is a female. She will enter the nests of wasps and lay her eggs and the wasps don't seem to mind. Maybe this is because her larvae eat any dead wasps and detritus and other insects in the nests.

Shortly after I shot this I photographed a Day-Glo Xanthogramma, black and yellow wasp mimic hoverfly.

I've added a female willow emerald damselfly to extras.

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