Question about hoverflies

missgecko · Post by **missgecko** » Sun May 23, 2010 8:57 pm

On another site that I upload photos to, a fellow posted a photograph with a yellow flower and 3 hoverflies. They look just like the hoverflies that love my daisy bush. He reckoned that they were wasps, so I mentioned that they looked like hoverflies to me as well as some other people on the site. He has just come back to us all and said that his father in law checked with a University?? somewhere in the U.K. (the photos were taken in the U.K.) and he was told they were definitely wasps, or the common German Wasp. Can someone enlighten me please. He had been told they were dangerous and liked soft drinks which to me sounds like the European wasp. We have both in our garden, the European wasp and the hoverflies. Any info would be interesting.
Cheers

Craig Gerard · Post by **Craig Gerard** » Sun May 23, 2010 9:29 pm

Sam,

Could we see the photo?

I have hoverflies around the camellias at the moment; but most wasps have felt the bite of winter approaching. Can't say I've noticed any European Wasps around northern NSW.

http://www.csiro.au/resources/European-wasps.html

A Google image search for European Wasps should be of assistance regarding recognising these guys.

Craig

missgecko · Post by **missgecko** » Mon May 24, 2010 1:30 am

Hi Craig, I'm sending one of my photos with what I had thought was a hoverfly because I am a bit nervous about sending a link to someone else's work with all the accompanying comments. This little guy is exactly the same as the one that someone had posted on another site saying it was called a common German Wasp over in the U.K. and it was dangerous. I posted back and said no, I thought it was a hoverfly and they aren't dangerous. Down here in the south we are starting to see European wasps and and they are bigger and a brighter yellow than these little guys. I just think that if these little guys ARE hoverflies then people could be killing them because they've got the wrong insect. Happy to be proved wrong though

Cheers

Craig Gerard · Post by **Craig Gerard** » Mon May 24, 2010 2:13 am

That's a hoverfly as far I can tell Sam.

More info on the European Wasp (Vespula germanica) at link below:
http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=283

More details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_wasp

Good info for Aussies in the PDF document below.

http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/webdata/resour ... e_2009.pdf

Craig

sonyalpha · Post by **sonyalpha** » Mon May 24, 2010 3:44 am

Hoverfly I'm certain...take a look here:

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/imageDet ... munity.org

sonyalpha

P.S. Why are these links showing so long????

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:05 am

No doubt that the insect shown in the above photo is a hoverfly, i. e. syrphid fly (Insecta: Diptera: Syrphidae).

--Betty

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:18 am

Essentially, wasps (of the stinging kind) have two pairs of wings and long antennae, much like those of a bee. Hoverflies, like other Diptera, have only one pair of wings and those very short antenne that most Diptera have.

harold

missgecko · Post by **missgecko** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:20 am

Thanks so much everybody. Whew!!! a bit of a relief to know I was right (for once

). I can now let this fellow know that his dangerous wasps are actually harmless and good for the environment hoverflies. I've seen the odd european wasp hanging around our yard and one joined in with normal bees in my protea bush flowers. The wasp and a bee had a bit of a dust up and the bee eventually won, but I would think if there was a lot more around, our normals bees would come off second best.
Cheers

missgecko · Post by **missgecko** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:28 am

Oh thanks Harold, your post just popped in as I submitted my last one!! That's really interesting, I didn't know that. Actually I will mention now that I've learned a lot of things on photomacrography and was able to identify a spider that someone had posted to another site and they were asking what it was. When I saw the little hoverflies that were posted I was confident enough to tell him no, they aren't wasps and that's something I never would have done a year ago. One of the best things I've ever done was joining this site.
Cheers

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Mon May 24, 2010 6:43 am

Hi Cyril,

The reason your link is so long is you used a search engine like Google to search for an image which it pulled it up. However if you post the link at the top you get the Google search as well. If you note further down (red arrow) it actually says "The image below is at". If you click on this the site will come up without the Google search. Then click on that link and it will be a shorter one:-

As below:-

http://taos-telecommunity.org/epow/EPOW ... 060501.htm

Looks like a hover fly to me. Click on the pictures in the first link to enlarge them:-

http://www.gardensafari.net/english/hoverflies.htm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/aug/0 ... on.science

For Wasp's:-

http://www.salford.gov.uk/d/insect14wasps.pdf

DaveW

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon May 24, 2010 8:38 am

ANother way is to just right-click on the picture you want o refer to and copy the address in "properties".

One on this page gives:
http://photomacrography.net/forum/image ... 4216e0.jpg

If that's still a bit long you can use tinyurl.com to shrink it to: eg

http://tinyurl.com/3a4ne6c

I thought I posted this before - I must be dreaming