Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Hoverfly

Hoverfly on a Marsh MarigoldIt was a beautiful spring day here yesterday - bright and still, although cold. So I put on a warm coat and scarf and took lots of photos. I was pleased with this one of a hoverfly.

Hoverflies deliberately mimic bees and wasps which fools some people who can't tell them apart. My kids get in a panic when one comes near them. I always tell them "If it's hovering, it's a hoverfly". Bees and wasps don't hover like that. This one was stationary on a marsh marigold flower, but it was still easy to tell what it was. The biggest clue is the eyes. Flies have fly eyes. Bee and wasp eyes are different. Here's a nice closeup of a hoverfly's head. And here's a worker bee head for comparison. The feelers are another giveaway - bees have long busy feelers, flies have short stubby ones. Another giveaway is the wings. Flies have two wings; the Latin name for the order is diptera which means "two wings". Bees always have four. And it's clearly not a wasp as it has a fat waist, not a wasp waist. I don't have a wasp waist either, so I won't hold that against it.

I like to see bees in my garden because they do a lot of good pollinating plants, resulting in more flowers and fruit. Hoverflies are also welcome visitors because they pollinate as well, and their larvae are hungry predators who gobble up aphids and thrips. It's all biodiversity, so it's all good.

7 comments:

benjymous said...

A fun trick is to attempt "Hoverfly taming" - basically hoverflies often look for places to perch (I guess they must get tired with all that hovering) so if you're graceful enough, you can creep up on one and hold a finger vertically underneath it. With luck it'll think it looks like a nice perch and land

rebecca said...

wow! what a lesson i learned today! i'm terrified of bees and wasps and wouldn't have even noticed the difference between a hoverfly (which i just learned about today, sad to admit) and a bee because all i needed to see were the "bee stripes" and that's it...i would've been gone in a millisecond. this was very interesting and quite informative. thank you!

i found your site via (i believe anchors & masts) and i am so happy i decided to link into it. good blogspot you have here. looking forward to returning often.

fiona said...

great post, really interesting and informative, and well done to get that fantastic shot!

regards from another UK non-wasp-waisted nature lover ;-)

marigold said...

That is a nice photo. Thanks for the info.

I might try that hoverfly taming now, Benjymous. :-)

Melanie Rimmer said...

Glad you found it useful, everyone, and welcome to Rebecca. Thanks for the hoverfly taming trick, Benjymous. I can't wait to try it out!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photography - and I now consider myself fully educated on the matter :) will never run away from a hoverfly again...

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