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Helophilus fasciatus
Helophilus from latin means 'sun lover' - These hover flies are active from early spring basking in sunny areas and nectaring from flowers. Helophilus species have a striped thorax. Eyes of Helophilus males do not touch, as they do in most other syrphid flies, and abdominal & facial details (females have a dark stripe extending from top of the head to antennae) are necessary to distinguish males (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/101...) from females.
Southern Canada to Mexico. Habitat in areas with flowers.
7 Comments
Thank you Small Wonders :)
Thank you everyone for your nice comments!!
Jeannette, females have an extra stripe at the tip of their abdomen - compare to male: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/101.... They also have a dark stripe from the top of their head to their antennae - image 3
great macros!
Great series!
Incredible series !
Very nice series :)
Wondering how can you tell it's a female?