Monday, July 11, 2005

Syrphid Fly

We looked through several books before deciding that this insect was a Syrphid Fly. It was spending time on Mullein flowers. These are three of the best shots that Fleur-Ange managed to capture. I just did some creative cropping of the photos.



Yes, Syrphid Flies look a bit like bees.



These photos make the fly look large, but they are about 1 cm, or less, from wing tip to wing tip (may 1/3 inch?).

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Unfortunately, the photos wouldn't appear on my browser. I'm not sure if this is a browser-specific problem...

Anyway, you got me interested on what syrphid flies looked like so I searched for them on Google. My goodness, they do look awfully like bees! The only difference that I can see is that these beelike critters don't have any stingers. I strongly suspect that their appearance is a survival adaptation, to make the birds that stay away from bees stay away from the syrphid flies as well and not eat them.

Ontario Wanderer said...

Hi Sarah,

Not sure what took you back to 2005 on this blog but I just discovered that the photos do not show on my computer either. Wonder where they went.