It is Friday Fly Day! – Bug Squad

It is Friday Fly Day–and time to put up pictures of a syrphid fly.

Syrphid flies, typically mistaken for honey bees, are pollinators, too. 

Often known as flower flies and hover flies, syrphids hover over a flower earlier than touching down. “Most species are predaceous, mostly on aphids or mealybugs,” in line with the UC Statewide Built-in Pest Administration Program. “Some syrphids prey on ants, caterpillars, froghoppers, psyllids, scales, different bugs, or mites. About 100 to 400 aphids could be fed upon by every aphid-feeding larva earlier than it pupates, however this varies by the mature dimension of the syrphid relative to the aphids’ dimension.”

They’re simply distinguished from honey bees as a result of (1) bees do not hover, and (2) syrphids have just one pair of wings, whereas bees have two. “Their giant eyes and quick antenna additionally give them away, notes Kelly Rourke in a U.S. Forest Service article on “Syrphid Fly (Sphaerophoria philanthus). The absence of pollinium, or pollen sacs, is harder to see, however is one other distinction from a bee. Of the almost 900 species of flower flies (household Syrphidae) in North America, most have yellow and black stripes.”

A number of years in the past we captured pictures of a syrphid fly and an Asian woman beetle (Harmonia axyridis) on a rose bush in our Vacaville pollinator backyard.

The situation: Aphids had been sucking plant juice on one finish and secreting honey dew on the opposite finish. The girl beetle was feasting on the aphids and getting sticky from all that honey dew.

Then alongside got here a syrphid, a feminine Scaeva pyrastri, as recognized by senior insect biosystematist Martin Hauser of the Plant Pest Diagnostic Department, California Division of Meals and Agriculture. It hovered over the woman beetle after which dropped all the way down to lick the honey dew from the beetle’s head.

‘Twas a cheerful day for the woman beetle and the syrphid fly, however not a lot for the aphids.