Common Puff-tail Sphegina clunipes

This was swept from Hemp-nettle and Common Nettle. My visit was not primarily for surveying and I forgot I'd collected a few insects when I got home so didn't get round to photographing them until they'd died. I initially assumed this was a female given the separation between the eyes but when I saw the shape of the abdomen tip I realised this must be one of those hoverflies where the males' eyes aren't close together. The specimen was dried out when I examined it and I could not see the processes on the genitalia which, according to Ball & Morris, suggested that it might not be clunipes. However, I was aware that such detail can be hard to see on dried specimens so referred to Stubbs & Falk for more detail. The key there didn't require visiblility of the genitalia (or even sexing it) and it keyed to clunipes reasonably straightforwardly. The only slight hesitation was with the colour of the face as the yellow wasn't very obvious - rather dark (not really whitish-yellow) and partly obscured by the silvery hairs. However it was yellow, and may have darkened after death. Just to make absolutely sure I cleared the abdomen to see the processes. I could see the processes from below but even after clearing they were still not exposed in side view until I prised it open.

male Common Puff-tail Sphegina clunipes showing head from side, abdomen, hind leg, chitinous bridge behind hind coxae, face, wing, genitalia from side before clearing and genitalia after clearing (from below and side), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 20th August 2025