

Posts tagged “flies




Drone fly (Eristalis tenax)

A handsome fly.. Coolest guy in the park at least



Scorpionfly (Panorpa communis)













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A Calliphoridae fly also known as “Blow fly”, from an older English term for meat that had eggs laid on it, which was said to be fly blown. He was blowing a bubble of water, and then inhaled it again. There are many theories for this behaviour (to aid digestion, to cool the body, being sick, cleaning  their mouthparts etc.) but no one knows for sure.


A beautiful hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae) on a dandelion (Taraxacum) 🙂

When I was a child, I thought these flies were unusually fast little bees or wasps but their coloring is a Batesian mimicry and they’re harmless. In fact, they do a lot of good as their larvae prey upon pest insects (which spread some diseases such as “curly top”) and adults feed on nectar and help to pollinate the flowers (which probably is why they’re sometimes called flower flies).


The yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) spend their lives on dung, or looking for it. They are predators and the dung supplies their breeding and hunting ground. They hunt by ambushing insects visiting the dung. Here’s a male dung fly having dinner, its prey so big that I first thought I was interrupting an intimate moment with a lady dung fly 😉


This fly has a second face in its face! 😀 It kind of looks like a cartoon character wearing huge headphones.



Anthrax anthrax, is a species of fly in the family Bombyliidae. It’s a fairly large fly, the body length is 10 mm. The body is black with four white markings at tergum 2 and 3 and two white markings at the end of the abdomen. Tergum 1 is black with tufts of white hairs at the side (visible when hovering, thus not in this picture). The wings are mostly black, only the tops are transparant, and the veins are dark brown. It kind of looks like the wings have been painted with watercolour, I think the pattern is quite nice. 🙂



Week 41-

(1) Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga)


(2) Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)