Posts Tagged: hover flies

Umm, Where's the Bee?

If there's one thing that entomologists hate, it's journalists who mistake a fly for a bee. To entomologists, it's like mistaking a referee for a football player (well, they are on the same playing field) or a model airplane for a Lear jet (well, they...

A drone fly, Eristalis tenax (left), and a syrphid fly. They're from the same family, Syrphidae, and are often mistaken for honey bees.. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A drone fly, Eristalis tenax (left), and a syrphid fly. They're from the same family, Syrphidae and are often mistaken for honey bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee collecting pollen. Lower right: a freeloader fly.(Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A honey bee collecting pollen. Lower right: a freeloader fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-up of a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-up of a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-up of a syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly. Note the setae or bristle on the head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-up of a syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly. Note the setae or bristle on the head. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Good Guys--and Girls!

Think of them as "the good guys" and "the good girls." Insects such as lacewings, lady beetles and flower flies. We're delighted to see that the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has just published a 250-page book on "Farming with Native...

A syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, nectaring on a tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, nectaring on a tower of jewels. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A lacewing glows in the afternoon sun. Larvae eat such soft-bodied insects as mealybugs, psyllids, thrips, mites, whiteflies, aphids, small caterpillars, leafhoppers, and insect eggs, according to the UC IPM website. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A lacewing glows in the afternoon sun. Larvae eat such soft-bodied insects as mealybugs, psyllids, thrips, mites, whiteflies, aphids, small caterpillars, leafhoppers, and insect eggs, according to the UC IPM website. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The lady beetle, aka ladybug, is well known for its voracious appetite of aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The lady beetle, aka ladybug, is well known for its voracious appetite of aphids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Seeing Red--On Buckwheat

Butterflies, honey bees and hover flies can't get enough of red buckwheat. Tight clusters of pink blossoms, coupled with gray-green foliage, grace red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens), a California native. It's good for the insects and good for...

Hover Fly

HOVER FLY lands on red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens) and sips nectar. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Looking for Nectar

LOOKING FOR NECTAR in all the right places is this hover fly, aka flower fly. It's on red buckwheat. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Caught on the Cosmos

Cosmos flowers are somewhat like Libras. They balance. In fact, the word,  "cosmos,"  means "harmony" or "ordered universe" in Greek. Plant cosmos and you'll soon be enjoying colorful flowers that belong to the...

Syrphid on Cosmos

SYRPHID, aka flower fly or hover fly, lands on a cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Close-Up

CLOSE-UP of syrphid nectaring on a cosmos. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Just Hovering

It's often mistaken for a honey bee. It's not a honey bee. It's a hover fly or flower fly. And this one, hovering around the plants last Saturday in the Storer Gardens at the University of California, Davis, looked like a Syrphus opinator to me. So I...

Hover Fly

A hover fly or flower fly, Syrphus opinator, rests on a stem in the Storer Gardens, UC Davis. You'll be seeing more of these hover flies as the weather warms. This photo was taken Saturday, Jan. 24. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Head of Hover Fly

HEAD OF HOVER FLY--This close-up photo shows the head of the hover fly, Syrphus opinator. The insect is often mistaken for a honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

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