Gravid

May seems to be going out much as it arrived: windy, cold, and overcast. Obviously this isn't particularly enticing for invertebrates, or for people like me who chase around after them with macro lenses. But in any case I was up against it today, time-wise, so I was grateful to this female Platycheirus albimanus, heavily gravid with eggs, for sitting patiently on one of the stinking iris flowers in the wild garden while I took her photo.

Various web pages give different common names for this little insect: the white-footed hoverfly, three-tufted sedgesitter, and grey-spotted boxer all appear high on the first page of a search. The Obsidentify app mixes and matches, calling it the grey-spotted sedgesitter, which (this being a Belgian app) may well be the recognised name in continental Europe. Personally, I don't think I'll ever be able to remember any of them, so I'll stick with its Latin binomial name, which I think is rather satisfying.