Description and photo of a striped fly resembling a wasp

A wasp-like fly is familiar to many gardeners. However, the insect behaves not at all like a wasp, but in a completely different way: the difference can be seen when a creature, frightened by the approach of a person, soars upwards. The hover does not leave the danger zone instantly. For some time it hangs on the spot, uttering a kind of sound, resembling the sound of water, with its wings. Apparently, this fact influenced the name of the fly.

What it looks like

Jacks, they are sirfidy - a large family of about 6,000 species. Externally, the striped fly from the family Syrphidae really looks like a formidable wasp, bee, or even a bumblebee.This feature (mimicry) allows the insect to protect itself from the bird that wants to eat it. After all, birds try not to contact with wasps, fearing their sting and poison.

The body size of an adult fly female is 10-12 mm; there are also large specimens body size up to 25 mm. The main feature of the difference of insects of this species is the absence of hard hairs, whose owners are representatives of other mushin families. Like bumblebee striped dark yellow color fly's body covered with a small pile. But unlike these insects, there are no second pair of wingers, which gives them the opportunity to hang for a long time in flight and drastically change the direction of their movement. The hoverfly is the owner of light short legs and a moderate length of the proboscis (a photo of a fly resembling a wasp is presented below).

Fly hoverfly

Where dwells

There is a hover fly almost everywhere, with the exception of Antarctica, deserts and tundra. Insects of this species are especially common in Europe, Central Asia and North America.

On a note!

There is a striped fly in Russia, inhabiting the backyards.

What feeds on

Adults feed pollen and nectar of plants. Most often, a fly like a wasp is found on flowering plants, parsley, dill, carrots. She does not disdain and various meadow herbs, fruit trees and shrubs. After all, the basis of insect nutrition is sugar contained in nectar. It is he who replenishes the energy reserves of a flying insect. Pollen is a source of protein, which is necessary for proper growth and development of eggs.

How to multiply

Years of flies begins in late May, early June. Mating season talkers usually occur in July. One female individual lays up to two hundred eggs. It can be placed in the grass, on the stems of plants, branches of trees and on the surface of the soil (the place of egg-laying usually depends on the type of insect). Thus, the onion hover, living mainly on the onion, lays eggs on the feathers of the culture.

On egg development usually takes 8-12 days. The legless, immobile larvae that appear from them resemble a flexible leech of a green, pale yellow or pinkish hue. Through the thin peel visible internal organs. The length of the syrphid at this stage of development is about one centimeter.

According to the type of food the larvae may vary:

• predators use food for aphids, flea beetles and other small insects, helping gardeners to fight small pests;
• herbivorous species damage lily bulbs and plant stems;
• the larvae living in the pond are used for food detritus;
• the dung and wood of dead trees provides a food source for exotic hoverfly flies.

Larvae fly larvae

So the larvae feed and grow for 2-3 weeks, after which they move to the next stage of their development, the pupal stage.

A pupa of a hoverdock has a drop-shaped body. Pupae that stay to winter usually brown color, light shade - summer pupae. After 10-14 days, an adult individual appears from the puparia, which after 1-2 hours, becomes capable of flying. With the onset of cold weather, the caterpillars of the new generation are hiding for wintering.

About the dangers and benefits

Not everyone knows that the hoverfly fly is not capable of biting, as it has neither sting nor poison. Speaking about the dangers and benefits of these "false" wasps, it all depends directly on their type.

On a note!

Huge larvae of predatory speculum. They are the best defenders of fruit trees and shrubs, destroying various harmful insects. Also hoverfly larvae are pollinators of flowering crops, which is especially necessary in mountainous areas due to the lack of bees.

Quite the opposite can be said about herbivorous hoopers. Such flies are a source of big problems for owners of garden plots, harming onions, garlic, bulbs of hyacinths, daffodils, gladioli and tulips. As a result, damaged plants begin to ache and dry. Bulbs of flower cultures suffer no less, without giving themselves good reproduction.