Social Distancing Week 6. The Footballer.
The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) is a colourful hoverfly that has started appearing in my garden over the last few days. It’s a chunky fly which rests with its wings open. The striped thorax is what makes it stand out from most other flies, so it’s quite recognisable. It’s a hoverfly which doesn’t appear to hover much. It has a slow jerky flight so is easy to watch as it searches for a flower to feed on or a nice leaf to rest on. It’s a great sunbather, so when it finds a sunny spot on a leaf is easy to watch. This one is feeding on some Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) which flowers on the roadside just outside my house.
It’s a fly with many different English names, which is a good reason to remember its Latin name. One name is the Sun Fly. Whether this is because of its sunbathing habits or just a mistranslation of the Latin name I’m not sure. Helio means sun but Helophilus means marsh lover. This leads to another name, Marsh Hoverfly. However the fly isn’t exclusive to marshes and there are several other hoverflies also called this so that isn’t very helpful. The yellow and black stripes on the thorax are its most noticeable feature. The Tiger Hoverfly is therefore another name it has acquired. However the behaviour of a hoverfly and a tiger are so far apart in my imagination that I can’t take this seriously. The last name I found, also my favourite, is the Footballer. I presume this is because of the stripes. I couldn’t find out when this name originated but I always think of striped football shirts as something out of the 1950’s. This is a bit of a crazy name for a fly but if you look at English names of other insects, particularly moths, then you will find there are plenty of names even dafter than this.
Whatever you call it Helophilus pendulus is a great fly to see. It’s widespread throughout the UK and will be around in the garden all through spring and summer too.
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