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Sticker of Big-headed lagoon fly
Bug card No. 0362 of 4,939

Big-headed lagoon fly

Eristalinus megacephalus
Eats: Nectar and pollenFlies and mosquitoesGardens and meadows6 legs

The big-headed lagoon fly is a hoverfly with a large head and golden eyes covered in pale purple spots. Its black body has golden stripes across it. It looks a lot like a bee, and that helps keep hungry animals away.

Lives in
Warm places in Africa, southern Europe and Asia, near flowers
Length
0.8 to 1.1 cm (0.31 to 0.43 in)
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It looks like a bee, but it is a fly and cannot sting.
What does it eat?
Like other hoverflies, it visits flowers for sweet nectar and pollen.
For real!Photo of Big-headed lagoon fly
Picture by J.M.Garg. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Big-headed lagoon fly about 1.1 cm long (0.43 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 27 secondsmoves 350 times its own body length every second

How big is Big-headed lagoon fly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its look-alike trick works because birds and other hunters think twice before grabbing a bee.

2

It is a good pollinator, which means it carries pollen from flower to flower.

3

It flies from May to October, and there are most of them in June and July.

4

The stripes on its body are wider on the males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Big-headed lagoon fly

?Does the big-headed lagoon fly sting?

No. It only looks like a bee. It is a fly and has no sting.

?How big is the big-headed lagoon fly?

It is about 8 to 11 millimetres long.

?Where does the big-headed lagoon fly live?

In many warm countries, from South Africa and Egypt to Spain, Italy, India, China and Guam.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eristalinus megacephalus
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Syrphidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
Lives on
Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Eristalinus megacephalus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by J.M.Garg. 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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