A couple of old specimens...

Yesterday`s capture of a six-belted clearwing started me reminiscing about the `good ol` days`, in the late 1980s/early 1990s, when I was doing a lot of recording of hoverflies and some other groups of diptera.
In that process, I did a lot of searching and sweeping, as well as examining old trees etc and a bonus was that I caught several species of clearwing, including the two shown below. I also used to catch thrift clearwings on Carmarthenshire`s western cliffs and the aforesaid six-belted clearwing in the south-east of the county. I was also given a specimen of a white-barred clearwing, taken from young alders alongside the Afon Bran near Llandovery and it would be good to confirm this species` presence  in the county once again - something for next year, as most clearwings are now `over`. Another that personally eluded me though ( I did look!), was the currant clearwing, which Jon Baker subsequently recorded in allotments at Carmarthen.

Above: yellow-legged clearwing, from a colony on an old parkland sweet chestnut (long since felled) on the Stradey Estate, Llanelli and, below, red-tipped clearwing, from a wet clearing in Coed Gwempa (Lower Gwendraeth Valley near Kidwelly). Both date from the very early 1990s.
I`d also seen yellow-legged clearwing only a few days prior to the Carmarthenshire sighting, just over the border at Old Cilgwyn in the very south of Ceredigion, again on an old parkland tree. Barry Stewart was also shown the yellow-legged clearwing colony in front of Stradey Castle and he took some photos, which have appeared previously on this blog.