Hi Janet

You may well be right, but my possibly flawed reasoning before was thus:
1) I'd already identified a female B sylvestris in the garden, which
had a quite broad black band, followed by a tiny brown tip to the tail.
2) But this specimen has no obvious black band towards the tail, but has
an extensive pale band, immediately followed by a more ginger colour
than brown
3) I have one photo that seems to indicate that the last 2 abdominal
segs are this colour, not just the tip
4) the pale yellow is quite extensive at the top of the abdomen too.

This seems to not comply with my description of B sylvestris male, which
ought to be fairly like the female.

Is my reasoning still wrong, or have I been caught out by an odd
variation?

Regards
Nigel