#hoverfly

[onenicebugperday]

Bumble bee hover fly, Volucella bombylans, Syrphidae

Found throughout the Palearctic and Nearctic realms

Photo 1 by Walwyn, 2 by agabus1, 3 by janicesutton, 4 by prunhel, 5 by bugzilla, and 6 (for scale) by michal_vais

[michaelnordeman]

Common Carder Bee/åkerhumla, unknown Hoverfly/blomfluga, and Holly Blue/tosteblåvinge. Värmland, Sweden (April 27, 2025).

[vulkun]

do you agree

[magsmixedup]

An Oblique Streaktail (Allograpta obliqua) amigurumi! This one was pretty experimental, but I learned a bit from it!

I like hoverflies in general, but I chose this species because I've found a couple of them inside my home recently. They both emerged from pupas I accidentally took indoors from rose clippings!

[chloekphotography]

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[marcelwasp]

Bee mimicking flies wallpaper I made

Plus here's a better look and fully repeating pattern

[feather-bone]

[ID: an illustration of a black and yellow striped fly with large red eyes. It is perched on a purple flower, which peeks through a bee-striped border. Test reads: "Hoverfly (Eupeodes spp.) Larvae help control aphids while adults pollinate flowers. They mimic bees to ward off predators, but they are harmless and don't bite or sting humans." End.]

5/12 pollinator posters - hoverfly and coneflower!

[mushiniwa]

[jupiterswasphouse]

[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: OCTOBER 27TH, 2024 | Video and Image IDs: A video and two photos of a yellow, brown, and black virginia flower fly (a type of hover fly). It the video, it's on a cardboard box, cleaning itself a bit, and then pausing for a solid 15 to 20 seconds and continuing to clean itself rapidly. In the photos, it's perching on a wooden stick /End IDs.]

[ranchwamen]

Last of my three pun drawings for a biology magazine! Featuring a Episyrphus balteatus -hoverfly, a housefly, and a Chrysops caecutiens -deer fly.

"Kaksi kärpästä yhdellä iskurepliikillä" means "two flies with one pickup line". It is a variation of "kaksi kärpästä yhdellä iskulla", which literally means "two flies with one strike", but is in fact the Finnish version of the idiom "two birds with one stone".

[michaelnordeman]

Criorhina ranunculi/humlelik pälsblomfluga. Värmland, Sweden (May 1, 2025.)

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Marginated Calligrapher Hoverfly - Toxomerus marginatus

The long task of untangling bishop's weed roots from the roots of rambling roses continues. However, many of the roses in the yard had started to bloom since the previous set of yardwork images. Their blossoming colors and tantalizing aromas have brought many nectar-hungry pollinators to the yard, including today's striped specimens. When initially stepping out into the yard, I found the individual in Picture 6 hovering around the larger plant blades and was able to take one picture thinking that would be the end of it. How wrong I was! There were so many more small Hoverflies gathering, coming and going among the yard's court of roses (no thorns) here. They can simply tuck in atop or underneath the anther filaments to mop up pollen and any pooled nectar available. Moreso the latter as roses tend to be more of a pollen-rich flower, which nevertheless makes them quite important to insects, especially Bees...and Flies that can pretend to be Bees thanks to their patterning and appearance. When observing these little pollinators, I was curious to see if it was just one specie of Hoverfly coming to these flowers or many species.

In previous years, I've found other types of Calligrapher Hoverflies in this area, including the Eastern Calligrapher Hoverfly and other similar genera. The two calligrapher species can appear similar to each other whether found in midflight or when landed, but they can be differentiated by carefully examining the abdomen and the rearmost part of the thorax. As mentioned in an earlier post, most professionals first look at the margins of abdomen to confirm for this particular Fly genus, so look there also if you can, but you may wind up needing a live specimen or close-ups of your flower-loving insect to do so. Alas, the day of photography only drew in Marginated Calligraphers, making identification easy. It's quite a party inside the roses, and while the camera is able to capture them at a reasonable size, I had to include Picture 5 for sense of scale. How tiny they are! Not only do these roses serve as sources of food for these small pollinators, but also as potential platforms to find mates. For the observer, this also presents an opportunity to find male and female Flies. Try and see which individuals you can find in these pictures. Remembers, in males the eyes touch, and in females, the abdomen tends to have a sharper tip.

Pictures were taken on June 7, 2025 with a Google Pixel 8a.

[helluvatimes]

Big-headed Lagoon Fly

A Big-headed Lagoon Fly (Eristalinus megacephalus) taking a break on a coleus after a raid on a nearby Globe Amaranth shrub. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

[bluestarrcreations]

💙Azura & Mustard Ref Sheet💙

I felt like making myself a new bugsona since I’m more attached to spiders! I still will use Stardust (my other bugsona, the butterfly), but Azura will be my new main bugsona. Spoods just make me happy >w<

And meet Mustard, her loyal lil pet hoverfly! 💛

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