Unusual Insects at New Ferry Butterfly Park

Roy Lowry makes regular trips to New Ferry Butterfly Park to photograph and identify the wildlife. Here are some of his more recent photographs.

Yellow-girdled fleckwing (Dasysyrphus trincinctus)

At the end of May he came across a hoverfly laying eggs on a hazel leaf. Its scientific name is Dasysyrphus trincinctus, common name yellow-girdled fleckwing. Roy could only find one previous Wirral record of it since 2000, which was in 2017. There are a total of six records in iRecord and iNaturalist for VC Cheshire (one in 2015, four in 2017 and one in 2022) and just 32 records in the RECORD LRC database from between 1982 and 2019. It's either under-recorded (hard to believe for such a distinctive fly) or a local rarity.

Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)

On June 1st Roy paid another visit to the Butterfly Park. The most interesting things that day were a Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly Libellula depressa patrolling the much reduced pond and two pristine specimens of Volucella bombylans (bumblebee mimic hoverfly). These were the two common variants of the species and they were seen within a couple of metres of each other which suggested to him that their larvae possibly developed together.

Bumblebee mimic hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

A second bumblebee mimic hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

On another visit Roy spotted a rather smart sawfly, Macrophya rufipes - another unusual record from the Butterfly Park. His researches show it to be the first record in Cheshire on iRecord (recorded in West Lancashire in 2022) and the only UK record north of Birmingham on iNat. However, there is a 2012 record from Winsford in the RECORD LRC database. Could this be under-reporting or another species migrating northwards?

Sawfly (Macrophya rufipes) 

We have three more interesting photographs. The first two show two stages in quite a vicious fight between two orange-vented mason bee (Osmia leaiana) males. The fresher looking one getting stuck in with his mandibles in the first picture was feeding on a hawkbit flower when the second one attacked him. The second picture shows the aggressor as loser (lower bee) about to be kicked off the flower.

 Two fighting male orange-vented mason bees (Osmia leaiana)

The victorious orange-vented mason bee about to kick his rival off the hawkbit flower

The final picture below shows a 2-spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata) emerging from its pupa.

2-spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata)

We are indebted to Roy for providing such a comprehensive record of invertebrates and sharing his wonderful photographs with us.