Bald-faced hornet fly
Spilomyia fusca
The bald-faced hornet fly is a hoverfly that dresses up like a wasp called the bald-faced hornet. Birds think twice before trying to eat it. But it is really a gentle fly that hangs almost still in the air and visits flowers.
Lives in
Eastern North America, in Canada and the United States
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It looks like a hornet, but it is a fly with no sting at all.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups get energy from flower nectar and protein from pollen. The larvae live in wet rot holes in 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)
Bald-faced hornet fly about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Hoverflies got their name because they can stay almost perfectly still while flying.
2
Its larvae have short tails and live in the soggy, rotting holes of old trees.
3
It is fairly common, so you have a good chance of seeing one on flowers in summer.
you asked
Most asked questions about Bald-faced hornet fly
?Can the bald-faced hornet fly sting?
No. It only looks like a hornet. It is a fly and has no sting.
?What does the bald-faced hornet fly eat?
Nectar and pollen from flowers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Spilomyia fusca
- Named by
- Loew, 1864
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Spilomyia fusca (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 Reuven Martin. CC0, 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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