Subject: Bee or Fly?
Location: San Diego, California
April 17, 2013 4:43 pm
This bug was sipping nectar from a Tidy tips flower. The markings on the body seem distinctive. Is it a bee or a fly or something else?
Signature: Don Rideout
Flower Fly
Dear Don,
This is a Flower Fly or Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae. Many members of this family resemble bees and wasps.
Subject: BEE IDENTIFICATION
Location: Stanwood WA USA
April 12, 2013 11:12 am
Hello Bugman! I am an adiv gardener in Stanwood WA, USA about 50 miles north of Seattle. I love flowers but I have really become passionate about photographing critters that grace my garden, especially Bees. I was hoping if I include some photos, you could tell me what they are. Photo 1 has extremely long antennae and I have not seen this critrer since i took the picture, two years ago.
Photo #2 is a an almost triangle shaped bee that I call the Guard bee. This bee seems territorial and chases other bees away. Agressive even.
Phto# 3 is a larger bee that I named mickey mouse due to their large eyes and funny shaped wings. I have so many more! Let me know if you would like to see them! ~ Tracy
Signature: Tracy Sellers
Longhorned Bee
Dear Tracy,
Your first photo of the bee with the long antennae is a Longhorned Bee in the tribe Eucerini which you can view on BugGuide. We have several photos in our archive of male Longhorned Bees roosting communally in a formation commonly called a Bachelor Party. Your third photo might be a Leaf Cutter Bee.
Bee
We will continue to research that. Your second photo, the one you called a Guard Bee, however is not a bee. It is a Drone Fly, a nonstinging fly in the family Syrphidae.
Drone Fly
Daniel, Thank you for the identifications. The Drone Fly was a surprise , but now that I think about it, it’s behavior does more closely resemble a fly. I am excited to be able to put a name to the Critters that grace my garden!
~* BEE Happy
Tracy
Solitary Bees
Native Drone Fly from Australia
Drone Fly
Bug of the Month: May 2007 – Valley Carpenter Bees. From the Archives: a pair of Carpenter Bees from Texas
Subject: Aquatic grubs
Location: Northeast Los Angeles
March 20, 2013 2:06 pm
Hello, Bugman! It turns out that I’ve been following your site for quite a while, and recently discovered that we’re neighbors, as I also live in the Mt. Washington area. So these are pretty local critters!
I have found these aquatic grubs in our (non-working) backyard water feature a few times while trying to keep the mosquito larvae population under control. I came across these two specimens yesterday and had the presence of mind to take a picture to send to you, along with a dime for scale. I have tried before to find something on the web, and today I tried the term ”aquatic grub”, and ended up here: http://www.aquatax.ca/miscdip.html – a website devoted to Saskatchewan Aquatic insects, which has a picture of a grub that looks very similar.
I realize we may not be able to nail down the species, but this looks like it could be a Dipterid grub. I love syrphid flies, and would be happy to know if that’s what they are. In any case, just wondering if you can identify or possibly confirm my conjecture. Thanks very much!
Signature: Jonathan V
Rat-Tailed Maggots
Hi Neighbor Jonathan,
Rat-Tailed Maggots are the aquatic larvae of a large Syrphid Fly known as a Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax. You might be interested in our Mount Washington Tag. We archive most of our own photos there.
Fantastic, Daniel, thanks! I don’t think I realized that maggots could have their own name, but that’s certainly an apt one. (And, you’ll be happy to know that I returned them to the pond.)
Thanks for the tip about the Mt. Washington tag, too. If I come across more unknown insects, I’ll be sure to check there, first.
Take care!
Jonathan
Rat Tailed Maggots eaten by Trout
Rat Tailed Maggots found in wood!!!
Rat-Tailed Maggots
Rat Tailed Maggots in Comfrey Tea
Subject: Three Lacewing larvae attacking Oleander aphids…
Location: Chicago
March 19, 2013 8:05 pm
I took this picture of three lacewing larvae attacking a colony of Oleander aphids right before I blasted them off my milkweed plant with the hose last August here in Chicago.
Signature: Justin
Syrphid Fly Larvae eat Oleander Aphids
Hi Justin,
Thanks for sending us an awesome documentary photo, but you have misidentified the predators. While Lacewing Larvae are known to feed ravenously on Aphids, these are actually Syrphid Fly Larvae. Adults are often called Hover Flies or Flower Flies. While we commend your use of a hose to remove the Aphids, a greener alternative than pesticides, we would like to offer our perspective. By hosing off the Aphids, you also removed the predators. We would have let nature take its course on this leaf, and we believe the Syrphid Larvae would have eaten all the Aphids in the vicinity. The Flies would then have matured and produced a new generation of predators and if you have a properly balanced garden with predator species, the need to control Aphids in the future might become an unnecessary action. We would have hosed off Aphids from plants that had no predators nearby.
Syrphid Larva eats Oleander Aphid
Syrphid Fly Larvae eat Oleander Aphids
Syrphid Fly Larvae eat Aphids
Oleander Aphids
Biological Warfare: Syrphid Fly Larva and Ladybird versus the Aphids!!!
Subject: Daniel – Strange Fly
Location: Hawthorne, CA
November 29, 2012 11:37 am
Hi,
I pulled this guy out of the bird bath a while back and cannot, for the life of me, figure out what kind of fly it is. Any ideas?
Signature: Thanks, Anna Carreon
Flower Fly, we believe
Hi Anna,
We believe this is another Flower Fly or Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae, but we haven’t the time this marvelous rainy morning to sift through the possibilities on BugGuide. Let us know if you have any luck with species ID.
Subject: Is this a honey bee?
Location: Niantic,CT
November 1, 2012 3:02 pm
I see these in a field behind where I work in SE Connecticut. I assume it is a bee but can’t find anything that looks like it online and in guides. Thanks
Signature: scott knecht
Drone Fly
Hi Scott,
This Drone Fly is a convincing mimic of a male Honey Bee. See BugGuide for a comparison photo. The aquatic larva is known as a Rat-Tailed Maggot.
Subject: Is this a bee, a wasp, or what?
Location: Southcentral Louisiana
October 15, 2012 6:57 pm
Hello, this little guy invaded my house when I left the back door open. He has wings like a wasp, a body like a bee, and a large head with short antennae. I have no idea what he is and was hoping you would know.
Signature: Celina
Flower Fly
Hi Celina,
We are going to have to go with “or what” since this is a Flower Fly in the family Syrphidae. Many Flower Flies are excellent mimics that are frequently mistaken for Bees or Wasps. See BugGuide for more information on the family Syrphidae.
The Baccharis in Elyria Canyon Park is still buzzing with activity.
Location: Elyria Canyon Park, Mount Washington, Los Angeles, CA
October 6, 2012
Painted Lady
There were at least four individual Painted Ladies, Vanessa cardui, nectaring on the Baccharis this morning at about 9:30. Though most of them were wary and kept their distance, this diminutive beauty, the smallest of them all, posed just a few feet from the camera. This photo nicely illustrates the white bar on the forewing that is a distinguishing feature.
Painted Lady
Though the closed wing shot is of a different individual, we are confident that all the Ladies we observed today were Painted Ladies and not the similar looking West Coast Ladies or American Ladies. The spots on the underwings of this individual are identifying features of the Painted Lady.
Gulf Fritillary
A lone Gulf Fritillary was also observed on the Baccharis as was a large Mexican Cactus Fly, a member of the Flower Fly family Syrphidae, and countless Honey Bees which were furiously gathering nectar.
Mexican Cactus Fly
What's Buzzing The Baccharis in Elyria Canyon Park??? Achmon Blue and others
Mexican Cactus Fly in Elyria Canyon Park
Dainty Sulphur sighted in Elyria Canyon Park
What's Buzzing the Baccharis? Bee Fly
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