Science & Natural History on display at Sheffield train station.

Several Thoughts for the week

In passing through Sheffield station, I came across this display board. It is a compact stand, hardly taking up much space, located in front of M&S close to the side entrance at the front of the station. It was a surprise to see it, natural history and science on display in a public space, accessible to people as they walk past on their daily commute. In a world full of digital media and advertising I do wonder how many people will stop to look. I do hope they will and be curious enough about scientific research in the local area. I loved it, let’s have more please……

See end of article to read display board

Hoverflies in Paintings

Hoverflies in Art:

When I first started my blog, I had this question about whether I could find and spot hoverflies on canvas or within historical books? I just wanted to see if they popped up anywhere at all. I figured old identification guides would have a few, but paintings? That felt like a long shot.

Fast forward a few months, and as I have been researching for my species articles I have stumbled across paintings and prints in books and to be honest, it’s been such a fascinating ride I would like to share! 

Turns out hoverflies have been making appearances in art way earlier than I ever imagined. So, I thought, why not pull all my findings together into one article? Up until now, the bits and pieces have been scattered across different posts on the site.

Here’s what I’ve uncovered so far: Updated 3rd Feb 2026 with better images from the paintings of the hoverflies.

         Still life with Bird’s nest - Jan Van Huysum (1718) & A stoneware vase of flowers - Jan Brueghel the Elder (1607-1608).

HoverflySpotter sightings w/c 18th Jan 26

Sightings from w/c 18th Jan 2026 - York, Monk Bretton, Garden & Old Moor Nature reserve

York

The weather has not been great these last few weeks, so instead I got stuck into a few jobs done around the house. It is also that time of year when Annual General Meetings (AGM) happen for several of the organisations I belong to.

The week started with a mini break to the city of York. 

It’s one of those places where there is so much to see and do, even with an annual visit every year for many years, there is still always something to discover, I love the place. Last year I went in search of, and to spot, the rare Tansy Beetle (Chrysolina grammis) the Jewel of York. To find out how I did, read my article within the British Naturalist Country-Side magazine vol 36 No.7 Winter 2025. It was a delight and surprise to see this street art from the hotel window.

https://bna-naturalists.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Country-Side-winter-2025.pdf

View from the hotel.....

Facts about Hoverflies volume 3:

Hoverfly Lifecycle

Like butterflies and moths a hoverfly lifecycle starts with an egg. These eggs hatch into a larva before going through 3 stages of larval developmental each of incremental sizes. They then pupate, before metamorphosing into an adult. See diagram below.

Diagram showing the simplified hoverfly lifecycle

A hoverfly egg can take 3 days to a couple of weeks to hatch. When the eggs are laid, they gain a waterproof coat called the chorion which prevents it from drowning or drying out, yet it is breathable to allow oxygen in and waste gases out. It is also, when laid, coated in a sticky adhesive ensuring the egg remains where the female chooses to lay it.

Hoverfly Genera

Acrostic hoverfly genera

Each slide explores a different genus: The genus name is split such that each letter forms a sentence, highlighting unique features of the incredible syrphids within each group, posted alongside artwork and habitat preferences.

All the photographs and artwork featured are my own, making this a truly personal project.
Just added Episyrphus 14th January, previously Scaeva,Syrphus,Volucella and Helophilus.

Thank you for your support—every visit helps in keeping this project thriving. 
Drop by often and enjoy the journey into the world of hoverflies genera!

Episyrphus

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) Wing length: 6-10.25mm. Flight: All year.

Species to spot in January

If there is one hoverfly everyone probably can spot and maybe even identify it's the Marmalade hoverfly. It is found in most habitats, but especially common in and around the flowers in one’s garden and by far the commonest hoverfly in the country. It is also migratory and has on occasion caused alarm when they invade from the continent in their thousands. They even reached the broadsheets one year causing mass panic to the un-informed, who mistook them for wasps.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/aug/03/sillyseason.science

They are not only great pollinators but are also, due to volume in numbers, a superb natural pest controller, worthy of attracting to the garden. Encourage them to lay their eggs (white) so that the emerging larva can feast on the aphids in your vegetable patch, and you may get a better crop of cabbages, as they particularly like those aphids (Brevicoryne brassicae). The larvae which are legless, translucent with orange markings, can eat up to 400 aphids during development to adulthood. It would be nice to think that gardeners and farmers could leave these little ‘superheroes’ to resolve these pest problems, rather than with artificial solutions, especially during their peak months July to August.

Facts about Hoverflies Volume 2

Proximity to humans

Hoverflies are drawn to humans for various reasons, but when captured, they employ clever tactics to deceive and defend themselves. Discover their surprising strategies below.

Dabbers: 

Hoverflies unlike some other flies don't bite but rather have short spongy mouthparts that dab. They dab the surface of your skin, likely seeking salt and moisture. This dabbing habit can tickle. At a flower they will be dabbing up nectar.

Photo Credit: K.Hinchcliffe

New Year in Bloom: Sightings 2026

Hoverfly Sightings W/C 1st January 2026

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope all my readers have had a great festive season and are ready for new adventures to begin in 2026.

It’s not been the best of weeks for me with regards getting out and about nature spotting, but I did get out New Years Day and the 2nd of January, so below are the listings for those days. As I sit here and write up my sightings, I am looking out on a dusting of snow which always makes a lovely, picturesque setting, until someone goes out and puts boot prints all over the place.

Click below to find out what I found.

Christmas in Bloom: Sightings 2025

Hoverfly Sightings W/C 22nd December 2025

It has been a while since I did a sightings blog, but it being Christmas I thought I would go out spotting in and around my locality in order to finish off the records for the year.

Often people will go out on New Years Day to log flowers and birds they have seen. I thought I would do this throughout Christmas week. Over the last few years a few botanical groups have started doing these types of logs, as seen on social media, but I haven’t seen many birding groups doing the same has yet. I am sure it will become popularised over the next few years.

Click below to find out what I found.

The HoverflySpotter logo

What Hoverfly species are to be found in the logo below?

The site has been up a few months now and let me start by thanking all those people that have visited, followed, subscribed and even re-visited, it really does help the channel grow and inspire me to produce more content. If you have not followed or subscribed, please consider it.

🎄 Something a bit lighter today, a little Christmas challenge. 🎅

For those of you who have noticed the logo to the site or the little favicon icon specific to the internet page on your desktop, you might have been wondering what hoverfly species this is…. Well, its no particular species at all it is a mishmash of many species all amalgamated into one.

 I wonder if you can guess which species……. Answers below… 📝

Card Game Nature Fluxx

Nature Fluxx the Card Game

Designed by Andrew Looney and Alison Frone.

Illustration by Derek Ring and Alison Frone.

Publisher Looney Labs.

Player 1-6 Ages 8+ Time to play 10-40 minutes.

www.looneylabs.com

Nature Fluxx is an ecology-themed variant to the popular card game Fluxx, published by Looney Labs and released in 2015. This is a much smaller game than Wingspan and comes in a very compact 10 by 13cm box with 100 cards and 1 sheet of instructions. If you are looking for that stocking filler for Christmas this might be the game. It also comes with a disclosure that 5% of proceeds are donated to environmental groups! 

It’s a very easy game to pick up - shuffle the deck and deal 3 cards to each player. Put the basic rules card on the table and then pick a player to go first. Their first task is to draw 1 and play 1 and that’s where the fun starts. It’s a game that quickly turns into this chaos where the rules are forever changing. The objective of the game is to meet the current goal using your keeper cards, but nobody can win unless there is a goal played. The goals also constantly change, and the next rule change or action might determine whether you win or lose. But beware there are creepers in the deck which can prevent any player from winning not just you!

Bird Board Game Wingspan

Wingspan the board game

Designed by Elizabeth Hargrave

Illustrated by Natalia Rojas, Ana Maria, Martinez Jasamillo and Beth Sobel

Publisher Stonemaier Games

Players: 1-5 Ages 10+ Time to play 40-70minutes

With Christmas fast approaching I thought it would be good this month to do some reviews which may help with that Christmas shopping. The original Wingspan I bought pre-Christmas many years ago, but the expansions have been kindly bought for me in the following Christmases and how delighted have I been to get them. Unboxing a game is exciting—just search "unboxing board games" on YouTube to see its popularity.

Nature themed board games

Introduction to board games:

I have been a board game player ever since I was young. I recall fondly playing cards with my grandma and learning all the different variations of card games. Later I learned how to play draughts and chess with dad, not that I was any good at them. Then there were the family holidays on the east coast where on a rainy day we would play monopoly, dominos and other such traditional games. But it was at the start of lockdown when I was looking for other things that me and my beloved could do to get us through the crisis, that we discovered themed board games.

After watching videos on Dice Tower, I came across several board games that seemed exciting, and that I thought we would both enjoy. During one of those times when we were allowed to go places, instead of going to the coast we went to a board game café in Sheffield to play Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. I remember it well because it was the first time I had a haircut in months as we walked past a barber shop along the way, my local barber having not returned post lockdown. The café was great, the food delicious, and the staff could not have been more friendly and helped us figure out what can be quite complex games.

Ticket to Ride board game set up

Hoverflies of Britain and NW Europe

Hoverflies of Britain and North-West Europe: A Photographic guide

Sander Bot and Frank Van de Meutter.

Bloomsbury Wildlife (pbk) published 2023.

400 pages, 1797 colour photos, illustrations, and distribution maps.

ISBN 978-1-3994-0245-3

With Christmas drawing closer you might be looking for that special gift to give a budding naturalist or entomologist, well stick around this might that book.

Hoverfly White-clubbed Glasswing (Scaeva pyrastri)

White-clubbed Glasswing (Scaeva pyrastri) Wing length 9.25-11.25. Flight May-Mid August

Species of the week –1st December

The first thing you will notice if you spot this hoverfly, are its abdominal markings. They remind me of hockey sticks, but the shape is often referred to as clubbed or bowed. Some prefer to refer to them as smoothwing, others glasswing due to the lack of microtrichia (tiny hairs) on the wings. There are 5 species listed for the British Isles but there are only 2 that you are likely to come across anytime May to mid-August. These are pryrastri and selentica the main difference being white/cream abdominal markings for the former and yellow for the latter. 

If this hoverfly seems familiar, even if you haven’t found one in the wild, it’s probably because you have seen the 1st edition of Britain’s Hoverflies by S. Ball and R. Morris published by WILDguides, where it is featured on the front cover. 

Autumn's Joy

An Autumn Poem:

This poem was inspired by a walk to my parents earlier this month.

Autumn returns, with rustling leaves,
birdsong drifts where summer left.
A jay glides past with nuts in its crop,
Caching food for colder weather.

Bright Nights Festival

Thought for the week: Nature Art

Every year I look forward the light festival that comes to town, this is the eighth year visiting Barnsley.

The reason I look forward to it is that these events are often full of nature inspired installations that blend art and nature beautifully. It also brings the whole town together, as long as it’s not wet or clashes with an England football match as it did one year. It can bring people of all ages into town even though its dark.

I love to see how art as a medium can be used to illustrate ecological concepts and environmental concerns of the day. I think it is important that we stop and look at what those issues might be, and art is a super medium to bring those concerns to life without judgement, if the message is clear. These installations are often interactive yet stimulating and I come away with a sense of wellbeing and fresh ideas for myself and aspire to be more creative going forward.

Last weekend there were more people at the Bright Nights than I have seen previously so well done the organisers, I even had to queue to see some of the installations. 

Hoverfly Sightings W/C 17th November 2025

The Search for Hoverflies

As the days get shorter, colder and wetter, it’s getting more difficult to find any hoverflies so did I succeed?

22nd November

British Naturalists’ Association (BNA) field meeting at Broomhill flash.

The Myth of Bugonia

Thought of the Week:  Now for something completely different:

Biblical Scripture: Judges 14:14
“Out of the eater came forth meat; and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”

If you are curious as to what the logo for Lyles’s Golden Syrup and scripture from the bible Judges 14:14, has to do with hoverflies then please click the read more below……

Hoverfly - Common Dainty (Baccha elongata)

Common Dainty (Baccha elongata) Wing length 4-8.25mm. Flight Apr-Nov

Species of the week – 10th November.

The first thing to notice about these hoverflies is that they look like no other hoverfly. They have this slender body with a wasp waist and hover around plants without visiting any actual flowers, or at least rarely. You might even wonder if they are in fact a hoverfly at all? Well yes, they are, they have the definitive vena spuria, the false unconnected vein, typical of all hoverflies, Syrphidae.