Wildlife: Diptera (Flies)

Wildlife macro images from the Natural World of our smaller inhabitants.
This Gallery is for the Order known as Diptera or true flies. True flies have only two wings and there are about 1 million species worldwide of which about 150 00 have been described.

Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)_01

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Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)_01

Photographed on the Saturday 23 July 2011.
All flies belong to the Order, Diptera. This is the Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) feeding on pollen. It is one of the few flies that are capable of crushing pollen grains to feed on them. This hover fly is from the family Syrphidae, tribe Syrphini and genus Episyrphus. It is one of our most distinctive Hoverflies, with the double black bands on tergites 3 & 4 being unique. As in most hoverflies males can be determined by their Holoptic Eyes (where the compound eyes touch at the top of the head). The marmalade hoverfly is abundant throughout the Britain and Ireland and has been recorded in all months. It is possible that they can hibernate in the winter and emerge on milder days. However, numbers can be boosted by migrations to the UK and can sometimes form swarms. They superficially resemble wasps, which perhaps affords them a degree of protection against predators, this is known as Batesian mimicry.
The larvae of the marmalade hoverfly are also beneficial to farmers and gardeners as their larvae feed on aphids. However, pesticides can have negative and harmful effects on the hoverfly larvae thus reducing both the efficiency of pest control and future fecundity (fertility) of the adults.

More information can be found here:
http://www.hoverfly.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=240
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episyrphus_balteatus
http://eol.org/pages/750052/details
Information on pesticides:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12600-010-0127-3

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