Flower Flies: Toxomerus marginatus
(Photo: Marvin Smith on 5/14/10)
Range: Common throughout most of the United States and southern Canada.
Size: Small -- 5-6 mm (around a quarter of an inch).Food: Adults feed on nectar and pollen and are often found visiting flowers of herbaceous plants or shrubs. Larvae are voracious predators of aphids, thrips, small caterpillars.
Key Identification Characteristics: Thin abdomen with a continuous yellow band around the outside edge. On similar species, the yellow and brown stripes across the abdomen go all the way to the abdomen's edge. Abdomen tip is pointed in females and rounded in males. Large reddish brown eyes.
(Source: BugGuide)
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5 comments:
Interesting photo. They were too busy to worry about your presence.
Very interesting! I always wondered about them. Are they a bee? Are they a fly? Thanks for clearing it up for me. ~karen
These look similar to the flies I saw visiting the Ozark witch hazel flowers. Probably a number of similar looking genera in this family, though. Nice photo.
So many different pollinators, so little time. Nice post, I'm relatively new to your blog and I am learning a lot about the Ozarks: a place I've only passed through and admired through a car window.
Thanks,
Bill:www.wildramblings.com
Still posting bug porn, I see. ;) *L*
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