#drone flies

a drone fly (Eristalis arbustorum) with her figurative shit fully out. with their larvae being aquatic, i would assume The Air would be a suboptimal ovipositing spot but i'm not a fly so what do i know

hello my dears... it's not a bee! drone fly helps pollinate flowers

what looks like a worker bee from afar is in fact, a type of drone fly from the genus Graptomyza. drone flies fall under hover flies, flies which also pollinate flowers and hover in a similar fashion that certain bees do too, causing them to be frequently mistaken as bees

many hover flies also mimic bees or wasps to deter predators, and this one is no exception. the larval form of hover flies is also well known for being rat-tailed maggots, these large tadpole looking things that sometimes appear in peoples toilets and scare the crap outta them

Do you guys like drone flies? They look like bees, but they’re actually flies and they don’t have a stinger! A vast majority of them are pollinators and super important for the ecosystem. This one was just too pretty for me not to take a picture <3

Found this little guy in the pond I was cleaning out for summer. It seems it's likely a drone fly larvae! They're cute little flies that look like bees and do pollinator work! They're VERY soft bodied and that tail is also soft, and used to breathe in low-oxygen environments- like my bird pen pond after the filter had been turned off for winter! Absolutely wild creature, I'm happy to have learned something new today!

My pool now has Eristalis tenax larvae in it!!!!

Aren’t they sweet

i had a fateful encounter with this Eristalinus taeniops lady right outside my house. these are my favorite local syrphids and i carefully examine every drone fly i see hoping i'll spot those trademark eyes, usually with little success, so it was nice of this one to visit me and spare me the effort