Narrow-banded pond fly
The narrow-banded pond fly is a hover fly from North America. It is mostly black with thin yellow stripes across its tummy. You can spot it hanging still in the air around flowers, like a tiny helicopter.
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Fun facts
Hover flies are also called flower flies, because the grown-ups spend so much time at flowers.
Its babies are called rat-tailed maggots. They have a long tube at the back end that works like a snorkel for breathing.
It is a common fly across the north of North America.
Most asked questions about Narrow-banded pond fly
?Can the narrow-banded pond fly sting?
No. It is a hover fly, and flies cannot sting. Its yellow stripes just make it look a bit like a wasp.
?How big is the narrow-banded pond fly?
Grown-ups are about 12 to 17 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Sericomyia militaris
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Sericomyia militaris (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 Gilles Gonthier. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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