Hoverfly - Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)

Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) Size: 11-15mm Flight: Apr- Oct.

Species of the week – 20th September

If you have a pond then this hoverfly is a likely visitor to your garden, especially around July when their numbers peak. Although its now coming to the end of its season there are still a few about, often seen basking on a leaf. See blog Garden Hoverflies

The thorax has pale yellow stripes and because of this is commonly called the footballer, as it resembles a football shirt, in particular Hull City with their amber and black striping. Other names for this wonderful species are the Tiger, which is the nickname for said football club. It is also the thorax design of this blogger's logo, chosen because of its distinctiveness. The rest of the logo design is not of Helophilus, however more information about this in a future post.

The abdomen has large yellow patches which makes it easy to distinguish from other hoverflies, see below. There are similar varieties within the Helophilus tribe, but this is the commonest species. It has a loop in the wing veins, an easy feature to observe, but not definitive, as its common across many other hoverflies of the Eristalini tribe. If the hind tibia is mostly black, then it probably isn’t pendulus but one of the other two species common to the UK. These being Helophilus hybridus or trivittatus, they also have slightly different abdominal markings. There are two rare vagrants H.affinis and groenlandicus known from records on the Scottish islands.

It is also one of those hoverflies that are the exception to the rule when it comes to identifying males from females, as both sexes have spaces between the eyes. This is mentioned in my blog ‘Facts about hoverflies’, however the males' eyes are still closer together than in females. The male is often smaller than the female but has different markings in the middle abdominal tergite, so with care can be sexed in the field, see pictures below.

Female Photo: L.Artindale

Its larva live in wet decaying matter and they have long tails which they breathe through. 

They are one of the joys of summer to see. These distinctive hoverflies whizz and weave around vegetation close to a pond, you never know you even might find a couple together as in the picture above. I have seen this mating behaviour a few times now. It's not a quick affair, as on occasion I have spotted them sitting joined like this for hours. But don’t stare too long as they will crawl away to a more discreet place under a leaf.