Black-Footed Drone Fly

eristalis hirta

The Black-Footed Drone Fly is a fascinating insect that looks like a tiny bee! Kids will love watching it buzz around flowers, helping to pollinate them.

Lebensraum: Gardens, parks, and near bodies of water.

Aussehen

The Black-Footed Drone Fly is a plump, hairy insect strikingly similar to a bumblebee, with a body often banded in black and yellow or orange. Its defining characteristic is its dark, almost entirely black, legs, distinguishing it from many other hoverflies. It has large eyes and a single pair of clear wings.

ReichAnimaliaStammArthropodaKlasseInsectaOrdnungDipteraFamilieSyrphidaeGattungEristalis

Black-Footed Drone Fly

Kategorie

Insekten

Seltenheit

Common

Gefahr

0/5 · Keine bekannte Gefahr

Snaps

Mach den ersten Snap!

Interessante Fakten

Adult drone flies can taste sweet nectar with their feet before even landing.

Their 'rat-tailed maggot' larvae breathe underwater using a snorkel-like tail!

These flies use their huge compound eyes to see almost all the way around them.

Though they look like bees, drone flies cannot sting – they are totally harmless!

Besondere Fähigkeiten

Black-Footed Drone Fly can look exactly like a bee or wasp because of its body shape and colors, which helps them scare away predators.

Black-Footed Drone Fly can hover perfectly still in the air because of its powerful flight muscles, which helps them feed on flowers.

Black-Footed Drone Fly has fuzzy bodies that pick up pollen easily, which helps them spread pollen between flowers as they feed.

Black-Footed Drone Fly larvae can live in stagnant, murky water because they have a long breathing tube, which helps them survive where others can't.

Maße und Details

Flügelspannweite: 15-25 mm
Größe: 7-12 mm
Lebenserwartung: 14-28 Tage
Fluggeschwindigkeit: 8 km/h
Anzahl der Beine: 6

Ernährung und Fütterung

Adult drone flies sip sweet nectar from flowers, while their larvae are amazing nature's clean-up crew!

Altersunterschiede: Larvae (rat-tailed maggots) consume decaying organic matter, bacteria, and algae in water. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from flowers.

Hauptnahrung

nectar
pollen
decaying organic matter
bacteria
algae

Nahrungssuche

Foraging

Ökologische Zusammenhänge

pollinates

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinale

helps spread pollen for

eaten by

House Sparrow

Passer domesticus

provides a food source for

eaten by

Flower Crab Spider

Misumena vatia

gets ambushed by

pollinates

Goat Willow

Salix caprea

visits early spring catkins for

Merkmale

Sozial

Soziale Tiere leben in organisierten Gruppen und kooperieren, um ihr Überleben zu sichern, beispielsweise bei der Nahrungssuche, Verteidigung und Aufzucht der Jungen.