Hook-barred spearhorn
Chrysotoxum festivum
The hook-barred spearhorn is a hoverfly dressed in yellow and black. It looks a bit like a wasp, but it is a gentle fly with no sting. You can find it buzzing around flowers in sunny woodland clearings.
Lives in
Europe and Asia, from Ireland all the way to Japan, in sunny clearings and grassland
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Hoverflies have no sting, even if they look like wasps.
What does it eat?
It visits lots of flowers, like heather, raspberry, elder and goldenrod, to sip nectar.
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)
Hook-barred spearhorn 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 about 1 centimetre long and has a small square dark spot.
2
It flies from May to September and is busiest in June and in August.
3
Its back has two grey stripes running from front to back.
4
It lives across a huge area, from Ireland and Spain to Japan and northern India.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hook-barred spearhorn
?Does the hook-barred spearhorn sting?
No. It is a hoverfly, and hoverflies have no sting at all.
?What does the hook-barred spearhorn eat?
It sips nectar from many kinds of flowers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chrysotoxum festivum
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Chrysotoxum festivum (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 Martin Andersson. CC BY-SA 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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