Carolinian elegant
Meromacrus acutus
The Carolinian elegant is a hoverfly dressed up like a wasp, with shiny black and bright yellow stripes. It is only a fly, so it has no sting at all. Like other hoverflies, it can hang almost still in the air.
Lives in
Eastern United States and South America, near flowers
Length
1.3 to 1.8 cm (0.51 to 0.71 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It only looks like a wasp and has no sting.
What does it eat?
Grown-ups visit flowers for sweet nectar and pollen. Its babies live in water inside rotten holes in trees and filter tiny bits of food from it.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 3 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 21 seconds⚡moves 280 times its own body length every second
How big is Carolinian elegant compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Carolinian elegant about 18 km/h (11 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its yellow and black pattern copies a wasp, so birds think twice before trying to eat it.
2
Its babies are rat-tailed maggots that live in little pools of water in rotten tree holes.
3
It is an uncommon fly, so spotting one is a lucky find.
you asked
Most asked questions about Carolinian elegant
?Is the Carolinian elegant a wasp?
No. It is a hoverfly that only looks like a wasp. It cannot sting.
?How big is the Carolinian elegant?
It is about 13 to 18 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Meromacrus acutus
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Meromacrus acutus (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 Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, 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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