Today's invertebrate is a hoverfly (family Syrphidae) that I photographed earlier this week in Prospect Park. Several confused people walked past me while I was struggling to get at least one exposure in focus for this very tiny specimen.
One kid said "mommy, why is that man taking all those pictures of a leaf? It's just a leaf."
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I can't be sure of the species, but this looks like a lot like what we used to call "news bees" back in Tennessee. While these flies mimic the color pattern of bees, yellowjackets, and hornets, they're actually quite harmless.
If you want to know more about the biology of these insects, there's actually an entire website devoted to the wonderful world of Syrphidae.
Of course, it's a European website, so you might need an adapter.
Hi,
Nice to see my website is kown here too ;-)
I am looking in extending the website with US data too in the future. As normal tis takes time.
Cheers,
Bastiaan
ps.. adapter?
Posted by: Bastiaan | Tuesday, 07 March 2006 at 03:02 PM