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Hoverfly


Hoverfly
Photo Information
Copyright: Tanja Almazan (sily) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 238 W: 6 N: 391] (1893)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-03-06
Categories: Insects
Camera: Canon PowerShot A710 IS
Exposure: f/2.8, 1/1250 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-03-07 17:43
Viewed: 611
Points: 8
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Very big hover fly, bigger than common bee, it has dark brown colored thorax with only two side markings shaped like dots in dark yellow color.Waste part of her body is very thin and eyes are big.
I supose this is female,
the closest I could get with ID is maybe Drone fly

Eristalix tenax or Eristalis pertinax

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Uniramia
Class: Pterygota – insects
Order: Diptera – true flies
Superfamily: Syrphoidea


The larva of Eristalis and related genera is the "rat-tailed maggot" so called because it has a long, rear, tail-like, extendable breathing-tube, enabling it to live submerged in organically polluted, deoxygenated aquatic sediments.
E. pertinax is a common and fairly easily recognised species, though it can be confused with the Drone Fly, E. tenax. The latter has a broader facial stripe between the eyes and little or no yellow on the legs - specifically the tibiae of the hind legs are dark in E. tenax whereas they are distinctly bicoloured in E. pertinax. Whereas the abdomen is tapering in E. pertinax, causing it to resemble a worker Honey Bee, the abdomen is more nearly cylindrical and "chunkier" in E. tenax, so it is more like the drone.
Eristalis is one of the larger hoverflies (family Syrphidae). Hoverflies are classic Batesian mimics, harmless but closely resembling bees or wasps (order Hymenoptera), and E. pertinax is one that closely resembles the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, not only in appearance but also in behaviour as it visits flowers. However, as a true fly it has just a single pair of wings, the hind wings having been modified into the tiny, drumstick-like halteres, which provide balance in flight. The males commonly hover in woodland clearings, aggressively defending small territories.

I think this is female Eristalis tenax.

Hoverflies are unusual amongst flies in having two outer cross veins close to the wing margin, with most other flies having only one such cross vein or none at all.

The vena spuria, a false vein, is diagnostic of the hoverflies.
The distinctive venal loop is characteristic of Eristalis and a few closely related genera (tribe Eristalini).

Interesting about hoverflies
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Critiques [Translate]

Je trouve cette photo très lumineuse, elle dégage de la chaleur, juste à la reagarder on sent qu'il fait chaud.
Bravo
Marie

  • Great 
  • Alex99 Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3596 W: 143 N: 5696] (18621)
  • [2007-03-08 10:24]

Hi Tanja.
I congratulate you on new equipment. Excellent camera and perfect picture. Perfect colour reproduction, fantastic details very impressive BG. It seem to me cropping on the right side is too strong. However, superb done macro shot. My compliments and wishes of many new such interesting pictures.
Alexei.

Hello Tanja,

excllent capture with perfect composure excllent details very crisp Just well done

TFS Kyle

Hi Tanja, great macro with splendid colors and wonderful details, very well done, have a great week end, ciao Silvio

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