It begins

Today I resisted all temptation to go out birding, and did some garden tidying instead. Eeeeurgh.

I was rewarded for my selflessness by finding the first three hoverflies of the year. Two of them - a female Episyrphus balteatus and a female Eristalis tenax - had doubtless overwintered, because both species were around well into the late autumn last year. But this one - a male Meliscaeva auricollis, known colloquially on the Continent as the Spotted Thintail - is a species I haven't seen here for many months. On the other hand, Steven Falk says that it can be recorded right through the year, and will overwinter as an adult, so maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough. Last invertebrate season was a bit tricky, for reasons, and my records weren't as extensive as they usually are.

Meliscaeva auricollis is a common species throughout southern England and the Midlands, but a little scarcer further north. It prefers well-wooded environments, and its larvae, which predate aphids, are often found among aphid colonies on berberis and brooms, and on the stems of umbelliferous plants. The adults can be quite variable in appearance: spring individuals are generally darker and have smaller spots, while the summer brood tends towards larger and brighter spots, with the two lower pairs not infrequently fused into bands. It's thought that this is down to the temperature at which the larvae develop.