hoverfly

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Brightly coloured winged insect. Hoverflies usually have spots, stripes, or bands of yellow or brown against a dark-coloured background, sometimes with dense hair covering the body surface. Many resemble bees, bumble bees, and wasps (displaying Batesian mimicry) and most adults feed on nectar and pollen. (Family Syrphidae (numbering over 2,500 species), suborder Cyclorrhapha, order Diptera, class Insecta, phylum Arthropoda.)

One of the most characteristic features of hoverflies is the presence of a longitudinal false vein in the wing.

Larva
The larvae show remarkable variations in appearance and feeding habits. They may feed externally on plants or they may be internal feeders, attacking the bulbs; for example the narcissus fly, Merodon equestris. Many are carnivorous, feeding on scale insects, greenfly (aphids), and other insects that harm commercial crops.

The larvae may also feed on rotting wood or the decaying organic matter in stagnant pools; for example the rat-tailed maggot, larva of the drone fly Eristalis tenax is found in polluted pools. They breathe by extending their tail breathing tubes to reach the surface of the water.

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