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A Quick History of the Hover Fly

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A Quick History of the Hover Fly

Roxburgh Promotions Quick Histories
Family: Syrphidae Subfamilies Eristalinae Microdontinae Syrphinae Hover Flies are true flies belonging to a large group of similar insects. The hover fly generally has spots, bands or stripes, of yellow, against a dark-coloured background on its abdomen. Sometimes they have a dense covering of hair. They are seen in the summer mainly in thier mating flights and on flowers in the hot June sun. Adults feed mainly on nectar and pollen, but some feed on honey dew produced by aphids. Hover flies are one of the few insects that can digest pollen, which is protein rich. They are often mistaken for wasps, but thier characteristic flight and sound is very diferent. Some of the species are classed as the biggest flies of Central Europe. Hover flies are not that easy to identify. Many look very similar to each other and some look just like wasps and bees. All are harmless. Some species actually behave like wasps as well as looking like them. It is thought that this mimicry protects hover flies from falling prey to birds and other insectivores which avoid eating true wasps because of their sting. This is called Batesian mimicry. In Britain About 270 species are recorded. The fly most commonly seen in europe and the UK is the Marmalade Fly episyrphus balteatus. It has distinctive double stripes on its abdomen which make it almost unmistakable. Hover flies probably figure significantly in pollination as they visit flowers of may plants. They are probably active too late in the year for fruit trees, but certainly other summer plants will benefit. To verify that an fly is a hover fly: (They have only one pair of wings). One of the wing features is a longitudinal false vein in the wing. Another feature of hover flies is the floating vein. This vein just ends nowhere. Veins normally end either at the edge of the wing or in another vein. The easiest way to find one in the garden is to watch thier chracteristic flight. Bees and wasps have a characteristic noise in fligh. Bees are unwieldy and tend to lumber along loudly whereas wasps sound like a small spitfire and fly in long sweeping arcs. Hover flies dart quickily and of course hover. Hover flies go through the normal insect life sequence, egg-larva-pupa-imago. Many flies have adapted to aquatic larval stages and can live in extremely dirty water, eating an array of decaying materials. To breathe they extend their snorkel like tail to reach the water surface breaking it with feathery hairs which emerge from the tube. These larvae are often found at the bottom of small ponds under aquatic plant pots. Sometimes called the rat-tailed maggots they are dirty white with rudimentary legs. Other larvae eat plant sucking insects, thrips and aphids. Over one third of hoverflies have larvae that eat aphids. There are also larvae which live in decaying wood, or sap runs on live trees. Some are a pest in agriculture eating live plant tissue such as roots, stems and flower bulbs from within or as leaf miners. Male hover flies have much bigger eyes than females. The eyes almost touch each other in the middle and are therefore closer together. For photos of hover flies, bees, and butterflies and the wild life of southern scotland see our website and the Wild Roxburgh diaries. Dave B
Tags: UK Wildlife
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