Hoverfly hostilities

Here we are, nearly at the end of November, and there are still insects on the wing. The number of wasps has diminished, partly because the ivy blossom is coming to an end, but there were still a few buzzing around this morning in the autumn sunshine.

The main attraction for insects at the moment are the sweet-scented blossoms of Mahonia x media Charity, also known as the lily-of-the-valley bush. This name is very apt, because the scent is very reminiscent of that species. The smell always reminds me of a wonderful winter weekend spent in Bath when I was at University. Much of the rest of the experince has gone, but the happy memory associated with the smell remains, thanks to the olfactory system being closely associated with the limbic system which contains the amygdala and the hippocampus, both parts of the brain which are closely associated with emotion and memory respectively.

Although there was a multitude of blossoms, these two drone-flies Eristalis sp. seemed determined to sup nectar from the same one, and had several altercations in the few minutes that I stood watching them. The one at the top of the image was the victor and the image captures the lower one just about to fly away, hence the wing blur.