Common grass skimmer
Paragus haemorrhous
The common grass skimmer is a tiny hoverfly, only about half a centimetre long. It can hang in the air almost without moving. The males have a red-orange tummy.
Lives in
Europe, Africa, the Near East and North America
Length
4.3 to 5.9 mm (0.17 to 0.23 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Hoverflies have no sting and cannot bite.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups drink nectar and eat pollen from flowers. The babies eat aphids on low plants.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 38 seconds⚡moves 470 times its own body length every second
How big is Common grass skimmer compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Common grass skimmer about 10 km/h (6.2 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It visits flowers like heather, oregano and goldenrod.
2
Its face is yellow with a black stripe down the middle.
3
It flies from May to September.
4
It lives in grassland, heaths, dunes and sunny paths in the forest.
you asked
Most asked questions about Common grass skimmer
?Is the common grass skimmer a bee?
No. It is a tiny hoverfly with no sting.
?What do its babies eat?
They eat aphids on low plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Paragus haemorrhous
- Named by
- Meigen, 1822
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Black-backed grass skimmer
Where the facts come from
- Paragus haemorrhous (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 Janet Graham. 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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