Taxonomy
Kingdom:	Phylum:	Class:	Order:	Family:	Genus:	Species:
Animalia	Arthropoda	Insecta	Diptera	Syrphidae	Sphaerophoria	S. scripta

The female of Sphaerophoria scripta has the body of the typical hover fly: long, broadened somewhere near the middle and ending conically. The markings, yello stripes on a black backgroud, are typical of hover flies. It is very difficult to tell apart females of the various species in this genus, for they all do look like oneanother very much. Even microscopic research doesn't always provide you woth the correct answer. In this case though, we are certain the female is a S. scripta



The male looks very different: it has a long, slim, stick like body, ending suddenly without tipped end. We do think that the animal in these pictures is the male of S. scripta, in spite of the very intens yellow markings. The males of this species have a body that protrudes from under the wings, for it is longer. The males are very variable in markings.