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LinkedInPosts Tagged: flies
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award Goes to...a Fly
Today's Honorary Bee Image Award goes to...drum roll...an image of a humble hoverfly appearing on the National Geographic Facebook page. The caption reads "A bee sits on a marigold flower in Coronado National Forest, Arizona, USA." Bee? Umm, no!Marigold? Umm, no!Sits? A bee does...
A National Geographic Facebook image shows a hover fly masquerading as a bee.
A drone fly, Eristalis tenax, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. It is often mistaken for a bee. Eristalis is a large genus of hoverflies, family Syrphidae, in the order Diptera. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A honey bee, Apis mellifera, sipping nectar from a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Syrphid Flies Are Pollinators, Too
Sometimes overlooked as pollinators are the syrphid flies, also known as "hover flies" or "flower flies." Unfortunately, they are often mistaken for honey bees. Hey, if it's a critter on a flower, it's a bee, right? Not necessarily! Syrphid flies are easily distinguished from honey bees....
A dorsal view of a syprhid fly sunning itself on a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The syprhid fly senses danger and slips under a leaf. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Charlotte Alberts and Those Fascinating Assassin Flies
Oh, the common names that insects bear...murder hornets, killer bees, cow killers, biting lice, assassin flies...if only those insects knew the violence in their names! Assassin flies--so fascinating--are also commonly referred to as robber flies, and that's the very insect that UC Davis...
An assassin fly sketched by UC Davis doctoral alumna Charlotte Herbert Alberts, who is both an entomologist and an artist. (Copyrighted image by Charlotte Alberts, used with permission)
Geoffrey Attardo: Seminar on Mating Biology of Tsetse Flies
Did you know that tsetse flies give birth to live offspring? That's just one of the facts that UC Davis medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo will discuss when he presents a seminar on "The Mating Biology of Tsetse Flies--Insights into the Morphological, Biochemical, and...
Mating tsetse flies. (Photo by Geoffrey Attardo, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology)
Bee Flies: Pollinators with a Bad Reputation
The late Argentine-born biologist Beatriz Moisset (1934-2022) of Willow Grove, Pa., called the insect "A Pollinator with a Bad Reputation." Moisset, who received her doctorate from the University of Cordoba, Argentina, and authored the book, Bee Basics, an Introduction to Our Native...
A bee fly, family Bombyliidae, heads for a yellow zinnia in a Vacaville pollinator garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The bee fly hovers over a yellow zinina. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The bee fly sips nectar from the zinnia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The bee fly takes flight. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
