Date First Recorded in the Garden: 26/08/2023

Family Syrphidae: The Hoverflies

A particular favourite in the Garden. This colourful and diverse group offer the perfect opportunity to practise species identification. With the correct reference material and online support groups such as the Hoverfly Recording Scheme on Facebook, you should be able to build up a good knowledge of this important family. They also pose rather well on occasion for photographs.

They are loved by gardeners as most species larvae are ferocious predators of aphids. Indeed the Larva are the main stage of the animals life, with the adult stage only lasting a few days/weeks at most.

Most but not all are colourful mimics of wasps and bees, but being Dipteran they have not sting.

Neoascia podagrica:

A very small, rather slender species we’ve probably been overlooking. They have a wasp like waist and a swollen hind femora. This species also has a rather distinct blurry cross vein towards the tips of the wings. All three of these traits can be seen in the image below.

In the Garden

The adults will just be feeding on some of the low growing flowers in the Garden. The larva have been associated with wet decaying matter and habitats. Plenty of these to be had in the Garden.