Hello all! It has been longer than I meant but things have been a little crazy lately. That's okay, let's get into today's topic: hoverflies. Below is a picture of a hoverfly I found. I don't know his species but I did get confirmation that he belongs to the family Syrphidae which is exciting!
Hoverflies have a few different names including hoverflies, flower flies, and syrphid flies. They are called hoverflies because they like to hover around flowers. Males do this to protect their territory from other males while they wait for females to come by and females do it to scout out egg laying locations. They are also called flower flies because they frequent flowers and eat the nectar and pollen they produce. Finally, they belong to the family Syrphidae which is why they are called syrphid flies.
The adult diet consists of nectar and pollen from various flowers. Larvae are more varied with some eating detritus while others are insectivores. The insect eating type are very helpful to humans because of ther tendency to eat aphids who damage crops. They are often used by farmers to help protect their crops from these crop killers.
Flower flies are pretty resilient and live in most biomes excluding deserts and tundras. Some hoverfly larvae are aquatic but the insectivores prefer staying on dry land. As I stated before, there need to be flowers around for the adults so they have a food source but they don't seem to need much. I'd say they're pretty peaceful, resilient, helpful, little guys.
Many species are bright yellow with spots or stripes. They are utilizing Batesian mimicry which is when a harmless species mimics a harmful one to persuade predators into thinking they are dangerous too. Despite their colors they are in fact harmless so don't be alarmed when you see one hovering nearby!
Hoverflies are very helpful! Not only do they help take care of pests to crops, they are also important pollinators. They are frequently hanging around flowers and visit many different types of flowers. In fact, they are often considered the second most important group of pollinators after wild bees! Bees carry more pollen but flies are able to visit more flowers. Some species visit a specific kind of flower while others are more generalist in their approach. Their preferences vary between species but they have been shown to prefer white and yellow colors the most! They also like more open flowers due to the way their mouthparts are set up.
I used to be very afraid of bees and wasps because of some childhood stuff and the noise that they make. The bees and I have come to an understanding while I'm still working on the whole wasp thing. So, these guys used to scare me too. Now, every time I see one I get excited and try to snap a photo. I'll leave you with my new favorite the Oblique-banded pond fly (Sericomyia chrysotoxoides). I was disappointed with the first photo because he hovered away before I could get another photo. The second photo was at a different time and I made sure to get a couple good ones!
As always, thanks for reading. See you next time!
Yours,
Jade
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