30 Days Wild - identify a new species

Not a new species to science of course (though that would be amazingly exciting!) but a species I've never noticed before! We saw this hoverfly on Friday in the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.

Using the Nature Spot Guide to hoverflies, I identified it as a Narcisus Bulb Fly (Merodon equestris) and then posted it in the UK Hoverflies Facebook group to get a second opinion. Someone in the group confirmed my identification! 

It's really nice to just enjoy nature but it's important to conservation (and interesting too!) to identify the species that we see around us. I've certainly noticed that since I became interested in hoverflies a couple of years ago, the variety in this group of insects has proved to be astonishing!

If you're interested in identifying British wildlife, then there's a list of useful websites on this page of my blog.