Today we have a panoply of lovely fly photos, all taken and sent by reader Jonathan Wallace from England. His notes are indented:
The Diptera get a bad rap and most people associate them with negative connotations. It is true that some species are vectors of disease and that biting flies can be hard to tolerate for man and beast alike, but there are also many species that are economically beneficial and of course they play a key role in many ecosystems. They are also amazingly diverse.
The pictures I sent are all except one of hoverflies (Syrphidae) which are a case in point regarding beneficial flies. These insects are important pollinators that can be easily seen by anyone who spends any time watching a flower bed; a high proportion of the insects visiting the flowers will be hoverflies. Many hoverfly species also give gardeners a helping hand as pest controllers, for the larvae of many of them prey on aphids. Hoverflies are also an interesting group for any amateurs of mimicry in animal species: many sport abdominal patterns that mimic bees and wasps.
Here are the species I’ve photographed:
Episyrphus balteatus – known as the Marmalade hoverfly, This is one of the commonest species in the UK.
Helophilus pendulus – a species associated with ponds and other wet habitats, although it can be found some distance from water. I have included two pictures: one of a female with eggs and the other of a mating pair.
Volucella zonaria – the hornet hoverfly. A pretty convincing mimic of the European hornet Vespa crabro. This species does occur in the south of England but this individual was photographed in Germany.
JAC: Here’s the putative model, Vespa crabro (photo from Wikipedia):
Myathropa florea – known unofficially as the ‘Batman hoverfly’ due to the similarity of the markings on its thorax to the batman logo.
Poecilobothrus nobilitatus – the Semaphore fly. Not a hoverfly (it’s a member of the Dolichopodidae), but to my mind a species demonstrating that the Diptera can be as beautiful as species in more widely appreciated insect orders. The males have white tips to their wings and raise these up and down in their mating display, giving rise to their English name.
JAC: I found this YouTube video showing the semaphore display:
Beautiful flies! I thoroughly enjoyed that with my morning coffee.
Beautiful insects!
Great pictures!
The semaphore display is a reminder of how fast these creatures move, and presumably think. Stimulus and response are not separated by many neurons.
Lovely. Just recently I was ooh’ing about hoverflies: https://bewilderbeast.org/2018/12/28/hover/
Nice flies. The insects are coming alive in my neck of the woods. Let the warm weather begin!
Enter stage left : sleet and slush and rain and hail.
Great photo (3rd down) of a Helophilus female (I bet) egg-guarding. I wasn’t aware that guarding occurred in syrphids. I suppose that the eggs are subject to attack by wasp parasitoids or small predators, and the female stands guard and wards off enemies until the eggs hatch. The fly in the photo seems to have all her eggs in one basket and, thus, would likely (if I’m on target) fight the good fight to save them if necessary.