They can hover in place, like a hummingbird, and zoom around in all directions. These day-flying insects are neat to watch in motion. Some larvae eat decaying plant or animal matter while others prey on garden pests such as aphids. Hover flies can occur anywhere there are pollen and nectar rich plants.Īdults feed on a wide variety of pollen- and nectar-rich blooms. Another difference is that wasps have narrower waists than hover flies. A wasp’s and bee’s antennae are noticeable, and bee legs have a place to store pollen, two other features to help tell them apart. Hover flies also have one set of wings where bees and wasps have two, although they’re not always easy to see as the forewing and hindwing are so close together. There are many species with varying patterns, and some even have fuzz, but you may be able to tell them apart from bees and wasps by looking at their eyes, which are very fly-like with many little segments (unlike bee eyes, which have a very solid dark appearance). But there is no need for humans to fear them as they are flies and don’t have stingers. All members of the Syrphidae family have a distinctive squiggle or false vein (spurious vein) running through the middle of the wing.ĭue to their colouration, adult hover flies are sometimes mistaken for bees or wasps, part of their means of self-protection from hungry predators. The most commonly seen ones, however, tend to be approximately 8–12 mm long with yellow and/or orange and black on the abdomen.
This very large family has great variation in looks.
Other Common Names: Flower fly, Syrphid fly Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Diptera Family: Syrphidae
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