Hoverfly and Scabious

The Scabious are flowering by the pond in my garden and they seem to be rather attractive to Hoverflies. I believe this one is a female Eristalis horticola. I’ve found one reference to a common name of  ‘Stripe-Winged Dronefly’, but other than than people seem to just call them by their Latin name. Hoverflies are often mistaken for bees or wasps, and that is their intention really – they’ve evolved to mimic the colours of bees and wasps to put predators off eating them. Smart creatures. I guess the predators haven’t learnt the trick about the eyes – Hoverflies eyes are quite different shapes to Bee and Wasp eyes, so that’s the way to tell the difference.