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Sticker of Black-footed drone fly
Bug card No. 0460 of 4,939

Black-footed drone fly

Eristalis hirta
Eats: Nectar and pollenFlies and mosquitoesPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The black-footed drone fly is a hoverfly with a shiny black body and yellow bands and spots on its tummy. It is about 1 to 1.5 centimetres long. You often see it sitting on flowers.

Lives in
Western North America and northern Europe, around bogs, ditches and pools
Length
1 to 1.5 cm (0.39 to 0.59 in)
Top speed
about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It looks a bit like a bee, but it cannot sting or bite.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups visit flowers for sweet nectar and protein-rich pollen. The larvae live in water and filter tiny bits of food out of it.
For real!Photo of Black-footed drone fly
Picture by Andrew Reding. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Black-footed drone fly about 1.5 cm long (0.59 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 24 secondsmoves 300 times its own body length every second

How big is Black-footed drone fly compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its larvae live in water and belong to the rat-tailed kind, named after their long tail.

2

Hoverflies got their name because they can stay almost still in the air while flying.

3

Its legs are black and yellow, but its feet are almost all black, which gave it its name.

4

Only in the males do the two big eyes touch each other on top of the head.

you asked

Most asked questions about Black-footed drone fly

?Can the black-footed drone fly sting?

No. It may look a bit like a bee, but it has no stinger.

?What does the black-footed drone fly eat?

The adults drink nectar and eat pollen from flowers. The larvae filter food from the water.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eristalis hirta
Named by
Loew, 1866
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Syrphidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
Lives on
North America, Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Eristalis hirta (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Andrew Reding. CC BY 3.0, 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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More from the same group: Flies and mosquitoes

Also at home here: Ponds, rivers and shores

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