Here am I, with two large shelves of wildlife identification books (a good many about insects) and I had to join an online forum this morning to find out what this little guy was!

The problem was that I wasn’t sure if it was a bug, a true fly, or even a wasp, because it alighted on my shirt for just a few moments and then was gone. I had only enough time to whip my camera out and take a snap on macro - I couldn’t even see the screen because it was sitting on the front of my shirt and I had a dog lead in one hand. I just had to hold the camera in approximately the right position and shoot one handed with my fingers metaphorically crossed. Didn’t come out bad really, did it, under the circs?

I found one fly in my Field Guide to Insects of Britain and Northern Europe which looked a lot like it, but there was no illustration for any variants, and St Mark’s Fly is all black. However, my little friend Bibio Hortulanus is indeed a close relative of St Mark’s Fly (Bibio Marci) as you can see here. So I was quite pleased with myself for getting that close.

Aren’t you glad I told you all that?

Oh, and by the way, seems I’m going to have to call my little ‘guy’ a little ‘gal’ because it’s the female of the species that has the red thorax.