Orange-spotted drone fly
The orange-spotted drone fly is a hoverfly that looks so much like a bumblebee that people often mix them up. It is black and furry with long yellow hairs and orange spots on the sides of its tummy. It buzzes around bogs, fens and woodland pools.
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Fun facts
It is about 15 millimetres long, about the size of a bumblebee.
Its eyes are completely covered in tiny hairs, and in males the two eyes touch at the top.
It has a brownish spot in the middle of each wing.
In North America it lives across much of Canada and in the northern United States. It may have been brought there by people.
Most asked questions about Orange-spotted drone fly
?Is the orange-spotted drone fly a bee?
No, it is a fly that looks like a bumblebee. It cannot sting.
?Where does the orange-spotted drone fly live?
In Europe and northern North America, near bogs, fens and woodland pools.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eristalis anthophorina
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- North America, Europe
Where the facts come from
- Eristalis anthophorina (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Jimmy Dee. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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