Large hover fly
The large hover fly is a blackish fly with creamy yellow bands on its tummy. It lives all over New Zealand and is very common in summer. Its larvae look a bit like little green slugs.
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Fun facts
Females eat more pollen than males, because they need it to make their eggs.
The mother lays her eggs next to groups of aphids, so her babies have food right away.
In males the two big eyes touch at the top of the head, but in females they do not.
A grown-up fly lives for about 19 to 45 days.
Most asked questions about Large hover fly
?What does the large hover fly eat?
The adults eat pollen and nectar. The larvae eat aphids and sometimes small caterpillars.
?Can the large hover fly sting?
No. It is a fly, so it has no stinger at all.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Melangyna novaezelandiae
- Named by
- Macquart, 1855
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Large hoverfly, New Zealand black hoverfly
Where the facts come from
- Melangyna novaezelandiae (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 Tony Wills. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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