It's the hoverfly special!

Photos taken:
Multiple dates
Early to late summer

When I started writing this blog I expected there to be one insect family I got really into, maybe wasps or dragonflies, possibly a species of beetle, but I wasn't expecting to fall in love with flies! In particular I've fallen in love with hoverflies and I'm not sure why really, I don't even have a ton to say about them here, but I think they're cool and cute and it's always a delight to see them gliding around.

Hoverflies were actually one of the first bugs I learnt to recognise; I remember being scared of them years ago because I mistook them for wasps, until I noticed the distinctive way they fly, hovering in place like a hummingbird rather than constantly moving like most flying insects.

Collage of three photos of a black and metallic green hoverfly resting on the lip of a stone bowl. The photos give a good view of its wings which have ripples running down them and a texture like laminated paper.

Let's start off with this iridescent one which was taken on the drinking station from my previous post. The fly wasn't actually drinking here just resting by the side of the bowl, but it stayed still long enough for me to get some really clear photos of its wings; you can even see individual ripples and veins!

It's also really cute! Their large eyes and their tiny little antennae with two white spots next to them, makes them easily one of the cutest flies I've seen.

Finally, it's hard to tell for sure but the fly is so iridescent that I think you might be able to see the shadow of my phone reflected on their body! If you zoom into the third image you might be able to see what I mean.

Collage of three photos of a black and white hoverfly taking nectar from white flower. On the right of the flower is a tiny winged bug that is hard to make out fully.

Our next hoverfly is this one I found helping to pollinate flowers. There are a lot of similar looking species of hoverfly so I haven't been able to identify many of them but I love this one regardless of what it is. Their black and white pattern is cute and it blends into the flower petals well, I just wish they were bigger so I could give them a pat on the head. They look very petable.

My camera also managed to capture a bonus bug on a plant stem to the right, but it's too small to tell what it is. It looks like it might be another kind of fly tho.

Photo of a hoverfly on the petals of a bright red poppy. Blobs of pollen are stuck to the fly's body and it has a red and black banded abdomen which almost looks translucent.

Next we have this one which was sitting on a poppy. They appear to have been very busy because their right side is caked in pollen. Not much else to say about this one other than the colours of its abdomen reminds me of the translucent orange pieces you'd get in Lego Technic sets, it's like a cool translucent orange version of the Energy Slizer!

Collage of three photos of an extremely large yellow and black hoverfly that resembles a wasp or hornet. The sun is shining through its wings, illuminating them in a variety of yellows and reds.

Finally I present to you: this absolute unit!! I cannot overstate how large this hoverfly was, it was huge! I was initially trying to take a photo of a small orange moth that had landed nearby but then this wild beast zipped past my head and landed nearby so I dropped everything to take its picture instead.

I'm really happy with how I managed to capture the details on the wings here, especially with the sun shining thru them. It's a very pretty bug!

This hoverfly appears to be Volucella inanis which has evolved to mimic larger species of wasp, both for protection from predators, and also so it can lays eggs in wasp nests. Once hatched, the larvae eat scraps of food and occasionally dead workers from the hive. To give you a better idea of just how large these hoverflies are, this fly is closely related to Volucella zonaria, a species that mimics the European hornet which is our largest native hornet. Very big.