European Drone Fly

The Astilbe flowers are prime in my garden now, and I'm spending an inordinate amount of time every day combing them for new and interesting insect arrivals, flower flies in particular. The more I look, document, and study, the better I've gotten at being able to identify syrphids—of course, it helps that I have Jeff Skevington and company's field guide to the Syrphidae, and it's even better that, as long as I'm careful not to abuse the privilege, I have access to the Master himself. Happily, I've learned something... even in my dotage. This handsome fly I knew almost instantly—the curve in one of the wing veins is a giveaway—as a member of the genus Eristalis, but the markings on the upper section of the abdomen weren't familiar. Soon enough, however, I located a fly in the guide that bore an hourglass shape on what's technically known as tergite 2. The mystery syrphid is none other than the European Drone Fly, an across-the-pond native that somehow made its way to Toronto in about 1885 and has since gone on to colonize the northeastern section of the continent, including, it clearly appears, my section.