DESCRIPTION:  Up to 10mm in length. Also known as the 'Black Colonel' this Soldier Fly is a medium sized species that has a more or less blackish body.  Males are darkest whereas females seem to have a lighter thorax due to a golden bloom.  The females may also have small yellow spots on the sides of the tergites.  The male has black wing veins towards the front of the wings, these are brownish in the female. The scutellar tubercles can be pale or dark. BEHAVIOUR: Adults have a fondness for visiting various umbellifers such as Hogweed, Cow Parsley, Wild Angelica and Hemlock Water Dropwort. The larvae develop in ditches and other wet areas with an abundance of emergent and floating vegetation. HABITAT: Found around coastal marshes and sometimes recorded inland near wet ditches and similar damp areas. PERIOD: On the wing April to July with peak time during May and June.