شناسایی Flies (Diptera)

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Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flesh Flies, Blow Flies and House Flies

Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

In these families of flies one finds some very common species. The Bluebottle deposits its eggs in rotting meat. The eggs often hatch instantly. Even though there are a few similar species, they are so hard to distinguish that we use the name Blue Bottle without worrying about the exact species concerned. Actually in most insect guides Calliphora vomitoria is shown as the best example of a bluebottle. But chances are you'll never see it, for it has become very rare. The most common bluebottle, especially in gardens is Calliphora vicina, which has the face rather reddish brown just below the eyes.

Common in gardens and sometimes buzzing indoors is this Bluebottle: Calliphora vicina.

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Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

The Green Bottle lives in the same way the Blue Bottle does. Still we are not sure that this is the Green Bottle. There are many species of green flies and they all look exactly the same. As the one below is not very hairy, it qualifies being a Flesh Fly and not the parasitic Green Fly. The real Green Bottle gets a golden or copper glow later on. Some close relatives of the greenbottle are horrible: they lay their eggs in living beings. The eggs hatch and the larvae eat the beings. In Europe toads and sheep sometimes suffer fr these flies, looking exactly like Green Bottles, by the way. In some tropical parts of the world however humans are affected as well, sometimes killing the infected person. The Common Flesh Fly, below on the right, also deposits its eggs in rotting meat. For a long time it was assumed that its larvae also ate the meat, but now we know the larvae are predators that eat other larvae. Its Latin name Sarcophaga carnaria would make a good title for a horror movie. By the way: it is not certain the species in the picture below really is Sarcophaga carnaria. In the genus Sarcophaga we find some 30 native species, which are extremely hard to identify.

To the left: the well known Green Bottle (Lucilia caesar). To the right: the equally well known Common Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga carnaria or relative).

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Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flies belonging to the genus Pollenia look much like ordinary flies. They are black, but softly glisten in the sunshine. That is because they have short, goldenbrown hairs on the thorax. The adults can be found on excrements, including those of humans. The larvae live a parasitic life in earth worms. In autumn the adults fly into our houses. They look for a place in attics to hibernate. Once hibernating the flies sit very still and it is almost impossible to wake them. They do no harm to you or your house. The species below to the left certainly belongs to the Pollenia genus, but we can't be sure that it is Pollenia rudis, even though this is the commonest species in Central Europe. This species often appears in large numbers. So does the Autumn (or Face) Fly and various Blow Flies. Collectively these species are known as Cluster Flies or Clustering Flies. We thank Tony Irwin for his help naming this species. Below to the right a Pollenia fly we haven't been able to name yet.

To the left: the female of one of the Cluster Flies (most probably Pollenia rudishttp://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/pollenia_sp.htm). To the right: another, but still nameless Pollenia species.

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Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

Flesh Flies and Blow Flies (Sarcophagidae and Calliphoridae)

In the genus Metopia there are several similar species. You can't identify them from just a picture. The males are almost entirely black and similar to many other black flies. The females have a large, silvry, protruding 'nose'. Their bodies are black with silvry greyish, very variable markings. These are interesting flies, for they are so-called cleptoparasites to big parasitic wasps. After making a nest the female wasp will go hunting for a prey. She leaves her nest open and the female fly will go in and deposit her egg. After hatching the fly larva will eat the food provided by the parasitic wasp. Life can be so easy, can't it?

The genus Metopia is comprised of cleptoparasitic flies. To the left a female and to the right a male.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

Man's best friend is the House Fly. Originally this was a tropical species. Men took it to the colder parts of the world as well. It manages to survive the winters in Europe and Northern America. It is not easy for the House Fly and most of them don't survive winter. Luckily the animal is capable producing no less than thirteen generations in just one season! In this way there are so many House Flies, that a sufficient number lives through winter. The Root-maggot Flies (Anthomyiidae) do look like the houseflies very much and are sometimes considered to be a subfamily of the houseflies only. From pictures it is often even impossible to tell the two groups apart and that is why we have decided to deal with both groups at once. Below you see two close relatives of the House Fly. To the left the Mid-day Fly. It deposits its eggs in dung and can be seen taking sunbaths in fall. It never enters houses. Even though most members of this Fly family live on and in rubbish, decaying materials or dung heaps, some hunt for other larvae, like the larvae of the Mid-day Fly.

Two members of the House Flies family: to the left the Mid-day Fly (Mesembrina meridiana) and to the right Mydaea scutellaris.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

The Autumn Housefly below can be a real nuisance. In autumn it may invade our homes in great numbers, looking for a place to hibernate. In summer it pesters horses and especially cows by sitting on and near the eyes. That is why it is also known as the Face Fly. It may transfer a desease as well as a parasite. In spite of both the common name and the scientific name it not only appears in autumn, but from summer onwards. The larvae live in dung. Adults feed on animal juices (tears, blood) and nectar from flowers. Most of the flies found on cattle are females, for they need more proteins to produce the eggs.

This Autumn House Fly is also known as the Face Fly, because it sits near the eyes of cattle in great numbers.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

The Face Fly may be a pest for cattle, the Stable Fly is a pest for vcattle and humans alike. It is similar to the Common House Fly. But studying it closely revealts a firm, short, stinging snout. With it it sucks blood from mammals, including cattle and humans. Cattle usually is stung in the lower half of the body. Attacks on humans concentrate on the lower legs, especially the ankles. The sting is painful, nut less so than the sting of a wasp. But as the Stable Fly may appear in great numbers, this is not much of a consolation. The larvae are found in dung.

This fly delivers painful stings: the Stable Fly (Stomoxys calcitrans).

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

The larvae of the Phaonia flies live in decaying wood. The flies are very common in woodlands, and are usually found on trees. They feed on dung however. Most of these flies have a grey thorax and a reddish or brownish abdomen. We thank various people for their help on these ones, especially Tony Irwin from Norwich.

To the left Phaonia rufiventris and to the right another Phaonia sp., most probably Phaonia errans.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

. House Flies often live inside our house, but you should always treat them as unwelcome visitors, for they carry many diseases, running from food poisoning bacteria to thyphoid and cholera.

Two House Flies that we were unable to identify.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

Below a very beautiful member of the House Fly family. It is a rather colourful fly and has been identified by Date Lutterop. Hij used not only the colours and looks of the fly, but paid attention to the veins in the wings as well. This is a male and as with many other fly species males can be seperated from females by looking at the eyes. Males have big eyes hardly separated from oneanother, while females have much smaller eyes, clearly sranding apart. In this case though, the distinction also lies in the colouring: the females are plain grey with lighter markings. The males of this species are more colourful than the females: on the abdomen they have orange spots, which the females don't have. The larvae live in moist dead leaves and are hunters.

This very beautiful fly is called Graphomyia maculata.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

The Root-maggot Flies often have a smaller body than the House Flies. But in most other respects they really do look alike. It is very difficult to put a name on them. From pictures one can not even tell to which group an individual fly belongs. This goes for the flies below. The one to the right was trapped in a cob web and therefor easy to photograph. Luckily though, it got loose in the end and flew away.

We do not know whether these are Root-maggot Flies or a House Flies.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

Below are two more species that could be House Flies, or Root-maggot Flies. And if you do look at all these pictures you do notice only very small differences between all these animals. If you just glance however, they all look alike. And it is particularly hard to imagine we are talking about two entire families of flies! We like to thank Tony Irwin for his help identifying these flies.

Two more flies belonging to this hard to identify group.

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House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

House Flies and Root-maggot Flies (Muscidae and Anthomyiidae)

Below you see two more root-maggot flies. World-wide there are over 1,100 species, mainly in Europe, Northern Asia and Northern America, with fewer species in the Tropics. Root-maggot flies sometimes become a pest in agriculture, for the larvae may weaken certain plants. Especially when they appear in large numbers, the damage can be substantial. The most notorious species is the Seed Corn Maggot, which lives in both maize and beans. The larvae of a few smaller species live inside leaves and mine these. The larvae of most species are harmless though: they live in decaying material, such as litter and fallen leaves. Most species live in woodlands or moist areas. We like to thank Tony Irwin for his help identifying these two.

Two root-maggot flies. Their body is often much smaller than that of a typical house fly.

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Hover Flies

Hover Flies

Hoverflies (Syrphidae)

Hover Flies

Hover Flies (or Flower Flies, if you are American) belong to a big family of small to big flies. They are among the most frequent visitors to flowers in the garden. In Holland and Belgium alone over 300 species exist! In summer the majority is seen in sometimes great numbers mixing with butterflies, bees, bumble bees and other flower adorers. Their strikingly swift flight, the standing still on flight and, in some species, their size are remarkable. Some hover flies are among the biggest flies of Central Europe. Many species are very colourful as well. Yet it is not always that easy to identify them being hover flies. Some thick-headed flies and bee flies are quite similar. Besides some hover flies are very dark creatures and these colours makes it hard to identify them correctly. In order to be sure the animal you are looking at is a hover fly indeed, one has to look at the veins in the wing and compare those with the picture below. In hover flies a great part of the edge of the wing is without veins. The vein running all te way to the edge in most flies, only reaches the last transverse vein, not the edge in hover flies (A). Another feature of hover flies is the so-calles 'floating vein' (B). This vein just ends nowhere. Usually veins end either at the edge of the wing or in another vein. Both these features being present means you are actually looking at a hover fly.

Veins in the wings of hoverflies: A veinless part of the edge, B "floating vein".

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Hover Flies

Hover Flies

Just like all other flies hover flies go through all stages of insect life: egg-larva-pupa-imago. The larvae of hoverflies are remarkably diverse for just one family of flies. Some live in extremely dirty water (including stale), eating all kinds of decaying materials. In order to breath they developed a long pipe at the rear end of the body, which they stick into the air. Other larvae hunt for plant lice. Some live in decaying wood, while some are a pest in agriculture for eating roots and flower bulbs from within. Like with so many other flies males and females often look alike, having the same colouring, size etc. Exceptions are found especially among the drone flies, where females differ from the males. However it's always easy to tell males and females apart. Like all other flies the males have much bigger eyes. These eyes almost touch eachother in the middle. Females have much smaller eyes, placed farther apart. Just look at the picture below.

Telling from the eyes which is which: a female to the left, a male to the right.

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Hover Flies

Hover Flies

Scientifically the hover fly family has been divided into several subfamilies. On my pages I prefer another division though: into shape and colouring. That's why I divided the hover flies into bee-like, bumble bee-like, wasp-like and others. Bee-like hover flies have dark brown bodies, often ith small white bands and orangelike spots. They include the famous drone flies. Bumble bee-like hover flies are often big, hairy creatures with broad white or yellow bands around the body, such as Volucella species. Wasp-like hover flies are black with yellow or white spots. Most hover flies belong to this group. The other hover flies include a few very dark species and the famous Heineken Fly. I do stress however that this is my own division and it is without any scientific justification!​

 

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Bee-like Hover Flies

Bee-like Hover Flies

Bee-like Hover Flies

The Drone Flies below can be seen in everybody's garden in summer. Larvae of the Drone Fly are very remarkable. They live in stale and very polluted water with almost no oxygen. As a solution to this problem they developed a very long tube on the backside of the body. This tube is put out of the water like a kind of a periscope and is used to breath through. This tube is probably the reason why in Dutch they are called Rat's Tail Larvae. The Drone Fly does look like a common Honey Bee indeed. It is more robust, shiny and a little darker though. The two animals are also easily told apart by the eyes: Drone Flies have very large eyes, typical of flies. Drone Flies make up the infamous genus of Eristalis. Infamous for this genus is comprised of some 15 species. These species are real look-a-likes and very hard to tell apart. The females are even harder to identify for not only are they extremely variable, they often also lack the orange spots commonly found in males. Below two very common species: Eristalis tenax and Eristalis pertinax. The difference between the two species is the last part of the leg, just above the foot: in E. tenax it is always black and in E. pertinax it is always yellow.

To the left the one and only real Drone Flyhttp://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/eristalis_tenax.htm (Eristalis tenax), to the right its close relative Eristalis pertinax.

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Bee-like Hover Flies

Bee-like Hover Flies

Another frequent visitor to our garden is the slightly smaller species Eristalis arbustorum. The males can be identified by their orange spot, which shows a small triangle. The female may have a much smaller spot, or even fly about spotless. The best way to identify her is by looking at the face: it shows bright, white hairs all over.

Eristalis arbustorum: a male to the left, a female's head to the right.

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Bee-like Hover Flies

Bee-like Hover Flies

Another frequent visitor to gardens is Eristalis interruptus below. It rather looks like all the other Drone Fly species, but can be identified by the black spot in the wing near the edge: it is a small black dot and not a bigger blob. The other details helping you telling this species apart are much harder to see and far beyond the scope of this site. Due to the fact that many species are highly variable you need some experience in identifying the individual species. Scientifically this species is also known as Eristalis nemorum.

To the left a female and to the right the male of yet another very common Drone Fly species: Eristalis interruptus.

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Bee-like Hover Flies

Bee-like Hover Flies

Many other Eristalis species are also very hard to identify. Below a species of which the identity is tentative. In order to be able to really identify it, you would have to catch it. There are identification tables in which you can look up the species you've caught. The differences between the various species can often only be told by looking at a combination of very small details, or examining the genitals.

Yet another Eristalis species? According to some this could be Eristalis pratorum, but the identification is very tentative!

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Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Various hover flies imitate bumble bees, but you have to becareful: most bee flies also look like bumble bees. The bee flies are even bigger than the hover flies, extremely hairy and they have a very long snout. Because of this snout they often hover in front of flowers, taking the nectar the same way a humming-bird would. Hover flies always sit down on a flower before taking the nectar out of it. Some hover flies imitate bumble bees so well, you might have a problem telling them apart. The hover flies however are better flyers than the bumble bees are, they have much shorter antennae end bigger fly like eyes. Volucella bombylans below imitates bumble bees. The species is extremely variable, as it imitates various bumble bees. The one below to the left obviously wants to look like the Earth Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris), while the one to the left imitates the Red-tailed Bumble Bee. It is very hard to imagine they belong to one and the same species! In such cases it is a good habit to use the longer scientific names. Starting of with the name of the genus, starting with a capital (in this cae Volucella), followed by the name of the species (in this case bombylans) followed by the name of the form or subspecies. The imitator of the Red-tailed Bumble Bee is scientifically known as Bombylans bombylans bombylans. The subspecies mimicing the Eart (or Garden) Bumble Bee is called Volucella bombylans plumata. The larvae of this hover fly lives in the nests of bumble bees, eating the rubbish the bees produce and possibly the bees larvae as well. You'll find a good comparison between the Bumble Bee and its imitator on the extra page, which you can reach by clicking on the animal's name in the caption.

Twice Volucella bombylans. To the left V. b. plumata and to the right V. b. bombylans.

To the left the fly, to the right the bee.
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To the left and in the middle another imitator of the Garden Bumble Bee. But the one to the right clearly imitates the Red-bummed Bumble Bee or Layla Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), which is amusing actually, for that is a species rarely seen in our garden.

To the left and in the middle Volucella bombylans var. plumata, to the right Volucella bombylans var. bombylans.

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Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Apart from Horse Flies most flies can't bite. They simply vomit the juices from their stomch onto their food and suck the liquids up again. This habit is exactly what makes Bluebottles and House Flies dangerous: their vomit contains lots of bacteria dangerous to man. Hover flies are not dangerous at all, as they will never voluntarily enter our houses. Below to the left you see a very beautiful hover fly, called the Pellucid Hoverfly. The species can be identified easily by the beautiful ivory white band and the dark spots in the wings. In this way it imitates bumblebees, but does a rather poor job, for it is even hairless. The larvae can be found in Bumblebee nests. Probably they eat both: waist products and bumblebee larvae. Below to the right another hover fly imitating bumble bees: the Greater Bulb-fly, also known as the Narcissus-bulb Fly. It too is quite variable, but less then the species above. The distinctions between the two hover fly species are the black spot in the wings of Volucella bombylans, which the Greater Bulb-fly lacks and the veins in the wings, which show some twists and turns in the Greater Bulb-fly, while being rather straight in Volucella bombylans. The larvae of the Greater Bulb-fly also behave differently: they live in bulbs of various plants, sometimes even becoming a pest in the garden.

The Volucella pellucenshttp://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/volucella_pellucens.htm (Volucella pelluscens) to the left is one of the biggest flies in Central Europe. The Great Bulb Fly (Merodon equestris) to the right sometimes becomes a pest in Daffodils.

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Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

Bumble Bee like Hover Flies

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ashkan%20Forootan/Desktop/kh.jpgfile:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ashkan%20Forootan/Desktop/kh.jpgThis is a member of the Eristalis group comprised of hover flies imitating bees. And you can still see the characterizing markings on the back of this species. But by growing long thick hairs it mimics a bumblebee as well. Some animals are hairier than others and the colouring may be different from the one in this picture as well. The butt may be reddish or black instead of white. We do not know whether this is a British species as well. In continental Europe this is an abundant species, but not seen very often, for it rarely visits flowers. The larvae live from and in rotting plant material.

A bee imitator mimicking a bumblebee: http://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/eristalis_intricaria.htmEristalis intricaria does it the intricate way.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

Most hover flies imitate wasps. They are black with yellow or white stripes or patches. There's a lot of variety among them both in size and colours. This is understandable, for so are wasps! By far the best wasp imposters are shown below. To the left a fly from the genus Chrysotoxum. Not only do they have wasp like stripings, they also developed dark wings, resembling those of the social wasps. Their antennae are remarkable as well: extremely long and wasp like, not found in many other flies. Sometimes you have to look twice to see that it is a fly and not a wasp! The genus is notorious for the many look-a-like species. The larvae live in decaying wood. The one to the right apparently is common in some parts of the British Isles as well, but has no common English name. There are a few closely related species looking very much like this one. We like to thank Han Endt for his identifying this species.

Two perfect wasp mimics: to the left Chrysotoxum festivumhttp://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/chrysotoxum_festivum.htm and to the right Xanthogramma pedissequum.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

The species below often appears in great numbers and is present all over Europe, including all of the British Isles. Has been introduced in South Africa and does wonderfully well there too. It is neither a big nor a small species reaching a length of some 9 mm. It is often bred, for the larvae are great aphid eaters. It is especially used in the growing of Chrysanthemum and spinach. When the weather is fine this hoverfly mat produce some 6 to 7 generations in one season (it is on the wing from June to September or October). The lifecycle is quick: already two days after being laid, the eggs may hatch. Next the larva will feed on aphids for some 10 days, during which period it may consume up to 800 aphids. After that the larva pupates. The duration of the pupal stage however is very short as well: after only 8 days a newborn adult comes out. And should it be a female, then she is capable of producing some 1,000 eggs in her lifetime!. So this is an ideal species for use in biological agriculture. This species is still often referred to by its previous scientific name: Metasyrphus corollae.

This common species often is abundantly present in one's garden: Eupeodes corollae.To the left a male, to the right a female.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

The genus Syrphus is comprised of, among others, three look-a-like species. Telling apart Syrphus torvus, S. ribesii en S. vitripennis can be troublesome at times. Yet it is not always impossible. Syrphus torvus, below to your left, for instance is the only one having hairy eyes. This is quite visible in males, females are less obvious, so you probably have to catch them and look into their eyes from various angles. Syrphus torvus likes woodlands and the edges of woods, but may appear in great numbers. It is a well known migrating species. On the wing from March to September. Extremely common species in Europe, Asia and Northern America. The other two Syrphus species are hard to tell apart, especially the males. For females there is a clue though: if the thighs are blackish it is Syrphus vitripennis, the smallest of the three. If the thighs are yellow it is Syrphus ribesii, the biggest of the three. The picture below to the right is not completely convincing, for we would like to see more of the thigh, but it is very likely the thigh is completely yellow. The animal clearly is a female and so this should be Syrphus ribesii. This too is a very common species, but less inclined to migrating. Flies from April to September. The larvae of all species feed on aphids and are considered to be useful. The larvae of Syrphus ribesii are welcomed by farmers all around, for they especially feed on aphids found on berries. The Latin name even means something like berry hoverfly.

Syrphus torvus to the left has hairy eyes, but often you have to catch it in order to be able to see that. The thighes of the female of Syrphus ribesii to the right are completely yellow.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

The hover flies of the gender Sphaerophoria are all small, black with yellow lining and very similar to one another. The male animal depicted to the right is recognazible, for its body is longer than its wings are. That's why it is Sphaerophoria scripta. So we wouldn't be surprised if the female to the left turns out to be the same species. We will however never be certain, for apparently there is no way to tell the females apart.

To the left a female Sphaerophoria sp and to the right a male Sphaerophoria scripta.

The female of Sphaerophoria scripta has the body of the typical hover fly: long, broadened somewhere near the middle and ending conically. The markings, yello stripes on a black backgroud, are typical of hover flies. It is very difficult to tell apart females of the various species in this genus, for they all do look like oneanother very much. Even studying the genitals doesn't help in this case!.

The female of this species looks like many other hoverflies.

Males can be told apart by examining the genitals. There is one exception though: the male of Sphaerophoria scripta may be identified even in the field. Its body is much longer than its wings.

We'll never know to what species op Sphaerophoria these belong.

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The female of Sphaerophoria scripta has the body of the typical hover fly: long, broadened somewhere near the middle and ending conically. The markings, yello stripes on a black backgroud, are typical of hover flies. It is very difficult to tell apart females of the various species in this genus, for they all do look like oneanother very much. Even microscopic research doesn't always provide you woth the correct answer. In this case though, we are certain the female is a S. scripta

The female of this species looks like any other hoverfly.

The male looks very different: it has a long, slim, stick like body, ending suddenly without tipped end. We do think that the animal in these pictures is the male of S. scripta, in spite of the very intens yellow markings. The males of this species have a body that protrudes from under the wings, for it is longer. The males are very variable in markings.

The male has a stick like body, rather uncommon in hoverflies.


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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

The Hover Flies below also use mimicry to defend themselves. Actually for the one to the left this ought to fail, for the spots on its body are not yellow as one might expect, but are more or less white. In summer you'll see lots of these flies, especially on flowers, so apparently it works with white as well as it does with yellow! The two Scaeva species below are not very easy to identify, however S. selenitica tends to have the spots on the abdomen in a yellowish colour, while those of S. pyrastri tend to be white. Furthermoe there are slight differences in the shapes of these spots. In our garden S. selenitica seems to be predominant.

To the left Scaeva selenitica, the most common Scaeva species in our garden. To the right look a like Scaeva pyrastrihttp://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/scaeva_pyrastri.htm, usually a very common species, also to be found in many gardens.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

Of many species one can hear the wings, keeping the animal in place in flight. Especially on lazy, warm summerdays this buzzing is audible, when laying in the grass, enjoying sun and nature. Two very common, larger hoverflies are depicted below. To the left the Striped Hoverfly and to the right its look alike cousin. Apparently the latter has to live without a common English name. In some gardens the first may be predominant, in other gardens the latter. Eventhough they are look alikes, one is able to tell them apart by looking carefully. The Striped Hoverfly is slightly smaller and the markings on the second abdominal segment are darker, even tending to orange. The stripes on the third segment however are used to tell them apart once and for all. In the Striped Hoverfly the lines never meet in the middle. There is a clear black spot separating them. In H. trivittatus however the lines (almost) meet in the middle.

To the left the Striped Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus), to the right the almost identical Helophilus trivittatus.

The animals in this middle row are all females.

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Wasp-like Hover Flies

Wasp-like Hover Flies

The species to the left is also common in many gardens. It rather looks like many other species, but is unique in one way: the lines on the thorax run across. From certain perspectives it even looks like the animal has a skull like pattern, thus in Dutch it is called the skull hover fly. The Marmelade Hoverfly (also known as Twin-barred Hoverfly) below is not difficult to identify. It is much smaller than the species above, but even more colourful. It is a remarkable species though, for adult females often overwinter. In most hoverflies it is the egg, larva or pupa overwintering. This species seems to be migrating: lots of adults travel to Southern Europe in autumn, even crossing the Alps.

To the left the unique Myathropa florea and to the right the rather small Marmelade Fly(Episyrphus balteatus).

Myathropa florea is a hover fly closely related to the Drone Fly and the Helophilus species. While these relatives are very difficult to identify, this species is less variable and very easy to identify, for it is our only wasp like hoverfly showing horizontal striping on the thorax.

Myathropa florea is conquering the UK lately.

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