Dancersend

By Dancersend

Take your pick of names

It was lovely to see a few of these early hoverflies, Rhingia campestris, in sunny spells at the nature reserve. This species has some remarkable features that are celebrated in different common names. Its exceptionally long snout, or rostrum, has earned it the name Pinocchio fly in some quarters. This structure houses an even more exceptional long proboscis that has given rise to an alternative name Heineken fly - the fly that can reach the parts of a flower that other hoverflies cannot. This extensible proboscis is folded up neatly when stored away in the base of the rostrum. When this one was probing close-range nectar sources on this dandelion the amazing proboscis looked to be a bit awkward in a half extended state (seen better in the extra photo). I've just come across a much more prosaic common name of Black-rimmed snout hoverfly, but I rhink I will stick to using the others.

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