ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Syrphidae

 Common names: flower flies, hover flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Syrphidae include:

• Medium- to large-sized flies often resembling bees and wasps.
• Suborder Cyclorrhapha: Antennae 3-segmented, aristate; vein Rs 2-branched.

Division Aschiza: No frontal suture.
• Distinctive wing venation: spurious vein usually present between R and M; cells R5 and M1 closed, resulting in a vein that runs parallel to posterior margin of the wing; anal cell closed near wing margin.

• About 950 species in North America.
• Larvae of many species are predacious on aphids. Others live in habitats as diverse as the nests of social insects, decaying vegetation, and polluted water. The rattailed maggot is an example of the latter.

• Page 281 and plate 13 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 341 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 557 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 505-513 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• Shetland Wildlife Pages - Hover Flies. Pictures of 9 species and brief text about the 36 species in Shetland.