
The most unusual eyes
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The most unusual eyes
I cannot find this bee in my book so I do not know what kind it is but it has the most unusual eyes.


Joan Young
Nice finding Joan.
I photographed something like this a year and half ago.
What your book says for my fly?

I photographed something like this a year and half ago.
What your book says for my fly?

The meaning of beauty is in sharing with others.
P.S.
Noticing of my "a" and "the" and other grammar
errors are welcome.
P.S.
Noticing of my "a" and "the" and other grammar
errors are welcome.

Nikola
"conspicious bee- or wasp-mimics, with yellow and black stripes. Precise hovering flight. Distinguishable on close examination by "false margine" to edge of wings.
Hope this info is of interest to you.
Ken
Thanks Ken for the distinction, it will help me in the future.
Thanks Nicola..this looks like the same fly as your picture. As Tony says, it belongs to the Syrphidae family (see name below) ...I photographed something like this a year and half ago.
What your book says for my fly?
"conspicious bee- or wasp-mimics, with yellow and black stripes. Precise hovering flight. Distinguishable on close examination by "false margine" to edge of wings.
Hope this info is of interest to you.

Ken
Thanks Ken for the distinction, it will help me in the future.

Joan Young
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No need to blush at that mistake, Joan -- the syrphids do an incredible job of imitating bees. I've never seen anybody guess right on first encounter.
To learn more, visit syrphidae.com. It's a whole web site dedicated to this one family of flies. There is a gallery of photos of most European species at http://syrphidae.com/photo.php.
I see a new note on the site that says "All data is now mainly based on Europe but Africa is now inserted too." So it looks like this may be an especially good time for you to start noticing these beasts.
--Rik
To learn more, visit syrphidae.com. It's a whole web site dedicated to this one family of flies. There is a gallery of photos of most European species at http://syrphidae.com/photo.php.
I see a new note on the site that says "All data is now mainly based on Europe but Africa is now inserted too." So it looks like this may be an especially good time for you to start noticing these beasts.

That's a good rule of thumb. Some hymenoptera have other forms (threadlike, rarely comblike, and ants have that distinctive elbowed form). But none of the hymenoptera have the combination of a thick base tipped by a long bristle, like we see in Joan's photo and is very common in the flies.Ken Ramos wrote:Bees it seems, always have clubbed antennae...
--Rik