Hoverflies
Hoverflies mimic bees and wasps but are harmless flies, pollinating as adults while their larvae eat aphids. These guides cover telling the mimics from the models and why they’re worth encouraging.
Pure benefit, and the sting is a bluff. Hoverflies pollinate like the bees they mimic and their larvae clear aphids, so leave the costume be.
Size
8 to 18 mm
bee-striped, fly-bodied
Wings
Two, not four
the bee-mimic giveaway
Diet
Nectar and pollen
pollinates like the bees it apes
Larva
An aphid hunter
clears them by the hundred
Species
Around 6,000
worldwide
Life cycle
Both sides of the garden ledger: the larva hunts aphids, the adult pollinates.
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Egg Laid right inside an aphid colony, so the larva hatches into a full larder.
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Larva A small legless maggot that slides over leaves eating aphids by the hundred.
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Pupa A teardrop-shaped case fixed to a leaf or stem while it transforms.
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Adult The bee mimic. It hovers at flowers, pollinating, and cannot sting a thing.
The tell I use is the hover itself: a hoverfly parks in mid-air over a flower in a way no bee bothers to, then darts and parks again. Once you have watched one do it you stop flinching, because you know the stripes are a bluff and there is nothing behind them but a fly with a good tailor.
Sam Fielding · field note · about Sam
Typical season
Several overlapping generations through the warm months; adults favor open flowers.
A hoverfly has no sting and no bite. The bee-and-wasp costume is its entire defense, and it works on nearly every predator, including us.