Eristalis pertinax – There are a lot of these around at the moment, hovering in mid-air or just chilling and preening themselve. Double-click to enlarge images.
© Peter Hillman ♦ 6th April 2020 ♦ Rear garden, Staffordshire ♦ Nikon D7200
Click to enlarge … click again to enlarge even more so and scroll up and down and marvel – as I have – at the intricacies of nature’s design, the power and the beauty even in humble flies…
July 2019, local field, South Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
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Meet Lucilia sericata, a brighly polished-looking fly. This one has rather tattered wings.
June 2019, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
Feeding time with Calliphora vicina – Bluebottle Fly. You can see why you don’t want them landing in your sugar bowl!
Do not click and click again to enlarge!
June 2019, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
Click and click again on the image to get that little bit closer …
Bluebottle Fly Calliphora vicina June 2019, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
Click and click again on the image to get that little bit closer …
Bluebottle Fly Calliphora vicina June 2019, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
This was quite a bold fly which appeared not to be bothered by me invading its space as I maneuvered myself and my camera about it, fiddling with the camera settings during the changeable light.
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June 2018, local woodland margin, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman.
I came across this distinctive fly near my local river, and it certainly did stand out from the greenery and was quite hard to miss. The toffee coloured wings are really quite something, apart from the carrot orange body of the fly with its black markings. It is generally found in areas of rich vegetation like hedgerows, woodland and damp meadows, and it is fairly common and widespread throughout Britain. The larvae lives in the ground where they feed on earthworms and beetle larvae, where as the adult feeds on other flies. The adult may be seen May through to September, usually resting on vegetation as can be seen in the photograph above.
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May 2018, near local river, Staffordshire, England. © Pete Hillman. Sigma 18-300mm lens.
This is a large black and yellow wasp mimic similar to Volucella zonaria, and the first time I have recorded it in my garden.
The adults visit a wide range of flowers from June to September. Before 1995 this species had been confined to southern England, especially London. Over the years it has expanded its range quite dramatically up to Yorkshire.
The larvae live in the nests of social wasps where they feed on the grubs.
August 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
Quite an unusual yet handsome small fly this one. From the family of Lauxaniidae, it has a length of 5mm (around quarter of an inch).
Found in hedgerows and on woodland margins, the adults can be seen June to October. Fairly common and widespread throughout England and Wales.
August 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
This is certainly a fly you cannot miss with it’s bright orange abdomen, dark stripe and bristly appearance. It is fairly large, too, as flies go with a length of 9-16mm (0.4-0.6in).
This one was taken with my Water Mint, feeding on its nectar. The adults are usually seen May to September. They are fairly common in England and Wales. The larvae are parasites of caterpillars and other larvae.
August 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
The colour of this small brightly coloured yellow to orange fly really caught my eye. It is about 4mm (0.16in) long, and is seen May to October. A fairly common and widespread species, it can often be seen resting on low vegetation or feeding on the nectar of flowers. The larvae feed on dead leaves.
August 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
This very tiny fly which I happened to find on my patio door is a Simulium. It is from a genus of black flies which are between 3 and 7mm (0.1 and 0.3in) long. Not to be confused with aphids, these are biting flies which suck blood, including human blood, and which can cause serious health problems in some countries. Also referred to as biting midges, we can sometimes get plagues of them over here in the summer. It is the female that bites, and after feeding she will lay her eggs in water where the larvae will hatch. They are usually found where there is permanent or semi-permanent running water like streams and rivers. This is mostly likely a male with the larger holoptic eyes. There are several species in Britain, so it is hard to pin down the exact one without microscopic scrutiny.
September 2017, Staffordshire, England.
Sometimes called the ‘Common Green Bottle Fly’ or the ‘Sheep Blow Fly’, it is one of the commonest and best known flies. Very distinctive with its metallic green colouring and dark bristles, but it can also have a metallic copper green tinge as well. It is often found basking on walls, fencing or vegetation. And it is also one that will readily enter houses. It is similar to other ‘greenbottle’ species, so care has to be taken in identification.
It can be seen most times of the year, but mainly during the summer months. Found in various habitats, but especially where there is human habitation. The females can lay many eggs which can result in a maggot infestation in exposed meat products. They can also infest sheep causing sheep strike, which is an invasion of living tissue which has to be treated quickly or the sheep may die. Lucilia sericata is commonly used in human medical treatment of wounds, and is called ‘maggot therapy’. The larvae feed on dead tissue and bacteria which may cause infection. These maggots also play an important role in forensic science when trying to determine time of death.
July 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
I initially found this large cranefly on top of blanketweed in my garden pond. They can grow up to a length of 2cm (3/4 inch), and have a distinguishing pale line which runs down the back of the abdomen. This is a female with the pointed abdomen, which is actually her ovipositor for laying eggs.
The adults can be seen March to October, and around water. Common and widespread throughout. The semi aquatic larva feeds on rotting plants at the bottom of ponds or streams.
August 2017, Staffordshire, England.
Even the name of this fly Calliphora vomitoria sounds kind of disgusting, with the ‘vomitoria’ no doubt relating to its habit of regurgitating its food and then eating it again. But it is not really its fault, as we will see later. ‘Bluebottle’ sounds better, which is a description of its gleaming blue abdomen. It belongs to a family of blowflies called Calliphoridae, which are fairly familiar to most of us as they are fairly large and stoutly built with a loud buzz. Most breed on decaying animal matter, and thereby assist nature in its essential recycling regime.
There are 14 genera and 38 species within Calliphoridae according to The Royal Entomological Society of British Insects (2011 edition), some of which include some of the greenbottle flies. There are 1500 worldwide. Calliphora vomitoria is often confused with Calliphora vicini. They both look superficially very similar, except with closer scrutiny Calliphora vomitoria has pale ‘cheeks’ and the jowls, below and behind the eyes, are covered in yellow/orange hairs. These can be seen on some of the images in this blog if you look carefully, but particularly in the image below and the final image. Double click on them for a closer look. Calliphora vomitoria grows up to 10–14 millimetres (0.4–0.6 in) long
It is said that blowfly maggots can compete with a lion at the speed in which they can strip a carcass down to the bone. This is obviously a fallacy, but it does reflect on the extraordinary efficiency with which these insects consume body tissues. At the smell of purification the adults will come, often in packs, and the females lay their eggs on soft tissue or near open orifices. The resulting maggots will feed quicker in hotter weather, but finally they will pupate within the corpse to emerge as adult flies. Despite how much we may loathe them, especially when they enter our houses and buzz around our heads and our food, they are our friends in that they help to clean up after death has had its way. Yes, they can spread disease and make food inedible, and the adult flies also vomit up their food to slurp it back up again. But evolution has not made their digestion as straight forward as ours. Their stomachs simply cannot cope, so they have to take it a bit at a time, regurgitate, and then add a mix of digestive enzymes to help break it down and fit for their digestion.
Calliphora vomitoria can be seen all year round, but mostly from March to October. They are common and widespread in Britain, and can be found virtually anywhere.
As much as flies trouble us at our picnics buzzing around our heads and our food, as much as we revile them, they are intrinsically woven into the fabric of our lives, as they have been for many thousands of years. In forensic science they help establish a time of death. Some blowfly larvae from Lucilia sp. are used in maggot therapy to help cleanse wounds, removing necrotic tissue. The adults are very good pollinators. So here we have it in a buzz or two, despite some of their most horrible and terrible traits, there is a balance of where they do, do some good.
Let us finish on an interesting poem from Raymon Queneau, which just shows how flies and humans play a dance throughout life until death:
When one sees flies, one thinks: they came from maggots. When one sees men, one thinks, to maggots they will come.
Photographs taken in August 2017, rear garden, Staffordshire, England.
Before I began to write this I thought, shall I just leave folk guessing what this is? Maybe I will, or … we will see …
It is taken from quite an unusal angle, and I suppose it looks like some kind of unusual golden screw with spikes or hairs radiating outwards. Yet it is a living organism. You cannot see any eyes because they are out of shot, which doesn’t really help much, does it?
There are quite a number of these organisms swimming in my garden pond at the moment forming one of the basis of its ecosystem.
Okay, it is a culicine larva, otherwise known as gnat or mosquito larva. I believe they feed on the algae in the pond. They hang from the surface of the water at an odd angle and breathe oxygen through a tube near the tip of the abdomen. They are amongst the very first creatures to colonise a pond, and they provide food for other life forms to thrive.
Rear garden pond, Staffordshire, England. July 2017.
Thick-legged Hoverfly (Syritta pipiens), on rose.
Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. July 2017.
Please click on an image for a larger more detailed view. Clicking a second time may get you a little closer.
This is the first time I have seen this hoverfly here. I usually see similarly yellow marked flies, so this was quite something to see one with bright white markings. Note how the frons (that section in front of the eyes) bulges. That is a characteristic of this species. This is a fair-sized hoverfly with a wing length up to 12.5mm (0.5in).
This is a migratory species but it will breed locally if conditions are favourable. Seen mainly during the summer months almost everywhere, although scarcer further north. Found in meadows, hedgerows and gardens.
The larva feeds on aphids.
Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.
I believe this to be a Greenbottle blowfly, a member of the Calliphoridae family of the order Diptera and a Lucilia sp. I did not realise at the time of photographing that this female was blowing quite a clear bubble for me. This appears to be quite a common activity in the insect world. So why do flies and some other insects blow bubbles? Well there appears to be several theories regarding this:
There are other theories, but I don’t think anybody really knows for sure. It’s not like you can ask them, “Hey, what you doin’ that for?'” is it?
Some bubbles are clear and some are opaque. Males do it as well as females. The bubbles are always redigested, never disgarded, unless sprayed in defense, although I have never seen this. Not that I avidly wait around and stalk flies waiting for them to blow bubbles.
Please click on the image for a larger more detailed view. Clicking a second time may get you a little closer.
Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.
Commonly called the ‘Bluebottle’ fly, several of them appear to be enjoying feeding off my Spindle which is just coming into flower at the bottom of my garden. This is the commonest of the Blubottles in Britain, Calliphora vomitoria being very similar, but less common. Calliphora vicina has quite a striking metallic blue abdomen with black and light grey markings, the thorax a dull grey, and the jowls are orange, where as Calliphora vomitoria are black.
The adults are mainly seen April to November, but they can be found all year round. It is common and widespread throughout Britain.
The larvae of these flies readily breed in decomposing organic matter, especially carrion, and have followed humans on our travels to take advantage of the waste material we leave in our wake.
Please click on the images for a larger more detailed view.
Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.
I believe this to be the species identified in the title as there are several similar species. To note the yellowish legs, black antennae, black hairs behind the eyes, and there are several preapical bristles on hind femur. Although its has a similar metallic green to some of our Greenbottle flies, it actually belongs to a family of flies called Dolichopodidae, known as the long-legged flies for obvious reasons.
I noticed it for the first time earlier this year around my garden pond, and this is the sort of habitat they enjoy, damp and moist. The adult as seen here are predacious, and they feed on soft-bodied arthropods and can help keep pests down such as aphids. Maybe that’s why I keep finding it around my roses as well as my pond.
They are generally seen May to July, and, besides my garden, can be found in wet grassland, hedgerows and woodland margins. Fairly common and widespread in England and Wales.
Please click on the images for a larger more detailed view.
Rear garden, Staffordshire, England. June 2017.
The hoverfly, Sun Fly (Helophilus pendulus), is back and landing on rocks around my garden pond. It appears it may well be a regular visitor.
May 2017, Staffordshire, England.
Please click on the images for larger, more detailed views.
Nikon D7200 with Sigma 105mm macro lens, ISO 100, 1/125sec at f/7.1, handheld.
Flesh-fly, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. May 2017.
Epistrophe eligans male, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. April 2017.
Greenbottle Fly, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. April 2017.
This is one hoverfly that has eluded my camera until now. For a fly it is certainly a showy one with its shiny brassy-coloured and yellow markings. A relatively small hoverfly with a wing length of between 6.5 to 9.5mm, it is mainly seen in the spring, from March through to May, feeding on flowers or resting on vegetation. The larvae are aphidophagous, feeding on aphids found mainly on trees and shrubs, so a good one for the gardener. Found on woodland margins, in hedgerows and gardens. Common and widespread throughout most of Britain, although scarcer further north.
Epistrophe eligans female, rear garden, Staffordshire, England. April 2017.
I had a visitor today. This Bee Fly (Bombylius major) was feeding from one of my Grape Hyacinth blooms between April showers.
It must be tiring work all this high speed buzzing about, as it had to take a rest on a stone in the warm spring sunshine.
The warmer sunshine has been bringing the insects out, and many have set up their favourite sunbathing spots on my Spotted Laurel at the bottom of my garden. But this one was not sunbathing, it was doing something which I had not seen before. Above the Spotted Laurel grows a tall yellow berberis bush which has been blossoming, and now the blossoms are falling. And this little early spring fly called Phaonia tuguriorum appeared to be feeding on them. I guess you got to get your sugar however it comes when you are a fly.
Another insect was attracted to the early spring sweet offering from the Lesser Celadine. Another fly, with the delightful name of the Marmalade Hoverfly.
It has been a very changeable morning with the light, having to keep altering the camera settings as the sun ducked in out of the clouds like it was playing some kind of celestial hide-and-seek, but at least it hasn’t rained yet. I went on one of my walks through the local woodland, mainly looking for one of my very favourite spring wild flowers, the Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria). As I enjoyed the yellow splendour of early spring I happened upon this extraordinary little fellas, who was drinking from this sweet flower cup.
One may be forgiven for thinking this is a bee, or even a hoverfly, but it is in fact a fly called, rather confusingly, a Bee Fly (Bombylius major). It mimics a bee as a defence mechanism, and it sure fooled me at first glance! One cannot help but take notice of the almost needle-like proboscis which, in the image above, can be seen sprinkled in fine pollen as it probes the centre of the flower.
I observed it for a short while as it hovered from flower to flower, taking a sip here and there, before I lost sight of it.
To learn more about this interesting fly please visit my previous blog “To Be Or Not To Be A Bee But a Fly”.
This is one of the earliest flies to appear in spring after coming out of hibernation. The wings have fairly distinct markings, and the abdomen and thorax are light grey with darker markings. The upper legs are reddish-brown, and the lower section is black. Male and females are similar. Length 6 to 8mm.
The larvae live in humus and amongst mosses, where they hunt for other insect larvae, particularly leather-jackets. The adults feed on nectar.
The adults fly February to October, and in milder winters until December. Found in various habitats, including gardens, and inside houses. It is often seen perched on fences or vegetation in early spring, catching some warming sunshine. Common and widespread throughout Britain.
March 2014, rear garden, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2014. Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
I know flies are not everbodies cup of tea, so to speak, but some certainly stand out and have the most striking colours and patterns.
One of many similar species of housefly. It has an orange body (females have more black colouration) and a grey and white stripy thorax with an orange scutellum. It has a distinct bulge in the outer edge of the wing which is typical of the Phaonia genus. Length 6 to 8mm.
The larvae live in decaying wood, rotten vegetable matter or carrion.
The adults fly March to October. Found in woodland and along hedgerows. Common and widespread in England and Wales, declining in numbers further north.
May 2015, rear garden, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2015. Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
Photograph taken December 2016, front garden, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2016. Camera used Nikon D7200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
This small fist-like ball on the end of this fern frond is caused by a fly called Chirosia grossicauda. The larvae tunnel into the central veins of the pinnules in late summer and cause them to roll downwards from the tip. The solitary white maggot feeds on the main vein by mining. Mature larvae most likely pupate in their galls. Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain.
Photographs of Chirosia grossicauda taken June 2014, local woodland margin, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2014. Camera used Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
Early November and this hoverfly is making the most of the fading rose blooms.
Photograph of Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) taken November 2016, rear garden, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2016. Camera used Nikon D7200, with Nikon 18-55mm lens. Manual setting ISO 100. 1/200 sec. f/6.3. No flash, hand-held.
This morning I spotted this cranefly on my living room windowpane as I was eating breakfast. Grey skies and rain outside, perhaps it was wishing it was indoors.
Photograph of Tipula confusa, taken October 2016, on living room window, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2016. Camera used Nikon D7200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
A fairly small and slender black and bright yellow patterned hoverfly. Length 8 to 10mm.
The larvae are predators in leaf litter. The adults feed on nectar.
Seen April to November. Found mainly in grassy areas or along woodland rides. Abundant and widespread throughout the UK.
Photograph 0f Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare) taken May 2014, local woodland ride , Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2014. Camera used Nikon D3200, with Sigma 105mm macro lens.
This hoverfly looks remarkably like a bee, and exists in two different forms where var bomylans mimics the Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) and var plumata mimcis the White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum). It is distinguished from similar hoverflies by having a hairy body. Length 15mm.
The larvae are scavengers of wasp nests and feed on debris and even the host’s own larvae.
Seen May to August. Found in many habitats, including hedgerows and gardens. A widespread and common species.
Photographs 0f Volucella bombylans taken June 2012, local woodland margin, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2012. Camera used Nikon Coolpix P500.
A rather narrow hoverfly with a yellow face and distinctive yellow markings on the abdomen, two of them nearer the thorax are smaller than the others and almost triangular in shape. Length 9 to 12mm.
The terrestrial larvae feed on aphids, and the adults feed on nectar. The larvae are camouflaged to look like a bird dropping.
Seen April to September. Broadleaved woodland, hedgerows and scrub. The adults are often seen feeding on umbels or basking in the sun on vegetation on woodland margins, or even in gardens. Scarce but widely distributed in England, more frequent in the south, and scarcer further north.
Photograph 0f Meligramma trianguliferum taken May 2013, local woodland margin, Staffordshire. © Pete Hillman 2013. Camera used Nikon Coolpix P500.
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