Favoritos de flyersmith

on black ash; 10 mature thalli, 2 immature, on 2 trees (approx 4 m apart.); in opem wooded fen / sparsely treed swamp of black ash and red maple, understory with virginia chain fern, cinnamon fern, and numerous sedge species.

On bark of mature to old Acer rubrum in old Acer rubrum - Abies balsamea swamp with other rare lichen species. Cross sections in microscope are to show dry (thinner) vs wet (thicker) thickness, graticule unit is 10 microns.

Syrphus sp.. Keys out to S. rectus on Vockeroth (1992) through 1-2-11-12. Looks more like S. knabi to me. 11-12 (frons blackish throughout) seems doubtful on this specimen so I looked into it. I believe problem might be at 2-11: at least some preapical setulae on midleg basitarius brown/black (picture 7). Might some S. knabi have a few brown setulae on basitarius?

This specimens does have key features of S. knabi with hind basitarius orange and contrasting following tarsomeres (picture 6) and face with dots above antennae and partly yellow frons (picture 5).

Female. S. brachygaster? Katepisternum pollinose (pic 1 & 2), Tarsi all dark (pic 3). Firth tergum looks broader than long (pic 4) but does not look like S. flavimana (postpronotum dark, femur unicolored (pic 1 & 2)).
Both S. flavomaculata and brachygaster are supposed to have an apicomedial cleft on T5, I can see/find one (pic 4). Vertex pile long (pic 5), T2 broad, mesonotum pollinose (pic 6), femur unicolored - S. brachygaster? Using Coovert & Thompson 1977.

found crossing road between two swamps, spotted by Natural Resources Student Sam Watts on night-time herp walk. First I've seen.

Photos:
1- Body Shot
2- close-up on pinch point
5- underside, showing white belly with speckles (sorry dude)

Yes, Charlotte County, the Amberwings have finally arrived. I am positive a week ago that I saw one at my sisters cottage, but went back on Friday and could not find anything, but I know what I saw and it was Amberwings, and I will go back again this week. So, I moved on to another favorite spot of mine and we struck Eastern Amberwings,,,,,,lucky 7 in total and all males. I am sure the females are there but needless to say I was sooooo excited I could hardly take the photos and it was really hard to paddle especially in the wind.