In America Hoverflies are called Flower Flies, such a pretty alternative name for them. This species Eristalis pertinax is refered to as the tapered dronefly. Tapered because its body tapers to a point and dronefly because it is a bee mimic and looks like a male honeybee, also called a drone.

Hoverflies are fantastic garden pollinators. They visit flowers as adults to feed on nectar to sustain their activity and their larvae feed on garden aphids, which many gardeners regard of as a pest.

It’s one of the hoverflies that you can raise in a hoverfly lagoon and that’s because its larvae are rat tailed, the rat tail a virtual snorkel for the grub to breathe. These hoverflies lay their eggs in stinky ditches and rotting leaves and you can recreate that habitat very easily by gathering some dead leaves and garden matter, placing them in a suitable container and filling it up with rainwater. This then becomes your hoverfly lagoon. Place it behind the shed and let the adult female hoverfly find it and lay her eggs there.

Hoverflies are flies and have just two wings (bees have four wings). Hoverflies have huge eyes like sunglasses on the top of their heads. This is one of the easiest ways to tell a fly from a bee. Flies do mimic bees but they can’t disguise their eyes.