Don’t chase Hoverflies

Hoverflies are amazing creatures, they are absolute masters of the air defending their territory against rivals in their quest to mate. On average they only live for about 12 days although some species can live up to 40 days. They actually spend most of their lives as lavae; 40% of the known lavae predate Aphids, so they really are a gardner’s friend.

The adults lack any specialised mouthparts so feed on nectar and pollen on the surface of flowers or on the surface of leaves like the one in the photograph, Epistrophe nitidicollis, where they also find Honeydew, a secretion from aphids. The lack of specialised feeding reflects the fact that the sole purpose of the fly life stage is to mate, and so the insect needs to gather energy rich food rapidly from any available source.

Like all flies they have modified hind wings; these are reduced to a pair of Halteres, small stems with a knob on the end. You can see these in the photograph as small pale stems where the main wings join the body. These vibrate with the wings and act as balance organs allowing steady flight. The insect twists them to change direction and the body adjusts orientation, to keep them level like a gyroscope in a boat.

The territorial habit of hoverflies helps when photographing them. If you spend time watching them you can identify spots where they return to land as was the case here ( also works for Dragonflies). This allowed me to setup a tripod and camera, and stake out the leaf waiting for the insect to return. This works well as like all flies they are very sensitive to movement and with the camera fixed you are less likely to disturb them. The camera was a Nikon D850 and a 105mm macro set at f7 1/200 sec using natural light.