Fly With Green Eyes, Green Body
October 22, 2009
My friends and I do alot of macro pictures of bugs and came across this fly with large green eyes and a metallic green body. Can you tell us what it is?
Bob in Florida
Tampa Bay Area of Florida

Hover Fly

Hi Bob,
After unsuccessfully searching BugGuide, we were going to post your photo and enlist help from our readership, but one last ditch effort led us to Ornidia obesa, a species of Syrphid Fly, commonly called Flower Flies or Hover Flies.  Seems this species has a somewhat dubious reputation.  According to BugGuide:  “It breeds in human latrines and other semiliquid wastes” and “It is known to carry bacteria of public health importance (Salmonella, Shigella and Mycobacterium). The species is also beneficial as the maggots can convert coffee-production waste products into useful protein sources for cattle feed.”  We found reference that this species from the New World tropics has spread to the Old World Tropics as well.

Bee like Fly
Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 7:23 PM
Every day I walk by a hedge coming out of my front door and always notice bees flying around collecting pollen and nectar, you know, their daily chores. Every now and then I notice a strange pollen or nectar collector as in the picture of the one I have sent you. It appears more like a fly but behaves like a bee. He has very short antennae and an odd mandible looking mouth just under the eyes. I have also attached a second pic showing a honey bee to provide a scale of his size. I live in southern California out near the Ventura coast and it has been quite a warm winter this year and even now, the flowers are blooming everywhere and the bees are a buzzin. I know there are several species of flies that behave like bees and this must be one of them.
Bee-wildered
Southern California

Syrphid Fly

Hi Bee-Wildered,
We believe your fly is a Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax, one of the flower loving flies in the family Syrphidae. Sadly, the angle of your photograph adds a bit of uncertainty to the identification. Drone Flies are excellent Honey Bee mimics. Drone Flies are perfectly harmless and do not sting nor bite.

Correction: From Eric Eaton
The “drone fly” from southern California is indeed a syrphid, but in the genus Copestylum. Without the specimen I can’t give a species.
Eric

Update: Syrphid
Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 6:16 PM
I wanted to thank you for your prompt help with the information on my ‘Bee-wilderment’. I was able to go onto the BugGuide site and from their pictures I was able to determine that my fly is of the Species Copestylum avidum. I have attached another picture that might confirm this but it is slightly out of focus.
Thanks again…..!
Bee-wildered
Ventura, CA

Syrphid Fly

this red and olden dragonfly like insect i am in capable of i dentifying my self please help.
Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 4:52 PM
i found this bug on my Jamaican dogwood in south florida and i cant seem to find out what its is. i wasn’t sure if it was a dragon fly do to its small size it was about 1 inch long maybe a little longer but very small it had only 2 wings at least that i could see the head and thorax where golden yellow and looked fuzzy to me the the abdomen was almost florescent red and looked like if you where to poor a glass and cranberry juice and look through it but brighter when it fly it hovered then moved and hovered more however it was moving to fast and i was only able to see it when hovering.
the ruler
south florida

Salpingogaster nepenthe

Dear The Ruler,
This is a species of Syrphid Fly, Salpingogaster nepenthe, which we quickly identified on BugGuide. Syprhid Flies belong to the family Syrphidae, and certain groups have common names like Flower Flies or Hover Flies, but this lovely specimen does not have a common name.  You can impress your neighbors by referring to it by the scientific tongue twister Salpingogaster nepenthe.