#melangyna

A hoverfly found on the west and east coasts of Australia.

Pyrrosia rupestris, the Rock Felt Fern, growing on Hoop Pine. Melangyna viridiceps, the Common Halfband, alighting on the African Bush Daisy, Euryops chrsanthemoides.

The seedpod of Koelreutia paniculata, the Golden Rain Tree, suspended in spider's web.

First described in 1849 as Syrphus ortas, and again in 1855 as Syrphus novaezelandiae. In 1875, it was described yet again as Syrphus rectus by M. S. Nowicki (although a North American species was given the same name that year). In 1969, it was transferred  to Melangyna, and the newly erected subgenus Austrosyrphus. In 2008 Christian Thompson realised that novaezelandiae, ortas, and rectus were the same animal. The species name should traditionally have gone to ortas, the oldest name, but novaezelandiae was already in widespread use.

Sometimes mispelled as Melangyna novaezealandiae.

Widespread throughout New Zealand and as far as the Chatham Islands, in a wide range of habitats. In agricultural areas one of the two most common species of hoverfly.

The adults are generalist pollinators, but the larvae are predators of other arthropods.

A very common species in Perth gardens - so common I'm a bit baffled i haven't covered it before. Distinguished from other Halfbands by the exact pattern of black and yellow of the abdomen, and the metallic green of the head.

In fact it's one of the two most common hoverflies in Australia, next to the Yellow-shouldered Hoverfly Simosyrphus grandicornis. They're frequently confused with each other - records from New Zealand and the Kermadecs are almost certainly Simosyrphus.

A small hoverfly with dark red eyes, found in SE and SW Australia.