Spotted thintail
Meliscaeva auricollis
The spotted thintail is a slim hoverfly with yellow spots on its dark body. It can hover in the air like a tiny helicopter. Its babies are helpful hunters of aphids.
Lives in
Europe from Scandinavia and Ireland to Spain, the Mediterranean, Russia and Turkey, in woods
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Hoverflies cannot sting, even if they look a bit like wasps.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups visit flowers like ivy, bramble and willow. The larvae eat aphids and other tiny sap-sucking bugs on trees.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Spotted thintail about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Each wing is only about 6 to 9.5 millimetres long.
2
It flies from March to October, and even longer in southern Europe.
3
It lives in all kinds of forest, both leafy and evergreen.
you asked
Most asked questions about Spotted thintail
?Does the spotted thintail sting?
No. It is a hoverfly and cannot sting.
?What does the spotted thintail eat?
The adults visit flowers, and the larvae eat aphids on trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Meliscaeva auricollis
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Meliscaeva auricollis (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 James K. Lindsey. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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