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Posts Tagged: syrphid flies
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award Goes to...a Fly
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award goes to...drum roll...an image of a humble hoverfly appearing on the National Geographic Facebook page. The caption reads "A bee sits on a marigold flower in Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA." Bee? Umm,...
A National Geographic Facebook image shows a hover fly masquerading as a bee.
A drone fly, Eristalis tenax, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. It is often mistaken for a bee. Eristalis is a large genus of hoverflies, family Syrphidae, in the order Diptera. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, Apis mellifera, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Syrphid Flies Are Pollinators, Too
Sometimes overlooked as pollinators are the syrphid flies, also known as "hover flies" or "flower flies." Unfortunately, they are often mistaken for honey bees. Hey, if it's a critter on a flower, it's a bee, right? Not necessarily! Syrphid flies...
A dorsal view of a syprhid fly sunning itself on a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The syprhid fly senses danger and slips under a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Andrew Young: Natural History of Syrphids, from Pollinators to Parasitoids
At first glance, they're often mistaken for bees, but bees they are not. They're flies. You've probably seen them hovering over flowers, which is why syprhids are commonly called "hover flies" or "flower flies." Enter Andrew Young. He's a UC Davis...
A syrphid, also known as a hover fly or flower fly, nectars on a tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii, in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A syrphid in flight, heading toward a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A syrphid tucked inside the petals of a rock purslane, Calandrinia grandiflora. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A syrphid hovers over Jupiter's Beard, Centranthus ruber. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Bee Is a Bee Is a Bee...
Remember that line in Gertrude Stein's 1913 poem, Sacred Emily: "A rose is a rose is a rose"? Well, to paraphrase Stein: "A bee is a bee is a bee...except when it's not a bee." In a recent interactive feature in the New York Times, writer Joanna Klein...
One's a fly and one's a bee. Can you tell them apart? Honey bee on the left: syrphid fly on the right. They're nectaring on Mexican sunflower, Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Not a bee. This is a bee fly, genus Villa. It's nectaring on Mexican sunflower, genus Tithonia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
This Is Definitely a Magnet for Bees and Flower Flies
The bush germander (Teucrium fruticans) is definitely a great fall-winter plant that's a magnet for bees. Just look at the bees that frequent the germander in the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road at UC Davis. As...
Honey bee foraging in bush germander. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Syrphid fly, aka flower fly or hover fly, visiting germander. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
