Black-thighed flower fly
The black-thighed flower fly is a hoverfly with bright yellow stripes on its black body. It looks a bit like a wasp, but it is a gentle fly. It is very common in gardens, parks and woods.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its larvae gobble up aphids, so gardeners are happy to have it around.
It is a migrating fly, which means it can travel long distances.
You can see it flying from March to October.
Its name comes from its back legs: most of the top part of each back leg is black.
Each of its wings is about 7 to 10 millimetres long.
Most asked questions about Black-thighed flower fly
?Can the black-thighed flower fly sting?
No. It only looks like a wasp. It is a fly and has no sting.
?What does the black-thighed flower fly eat?
The grown-ups visit flowers, and the larvae eat aphids.
?Where can I see a black-thighed flower fly?
In gardens, parks, along hedges and in woods, from March to October.
Myth buster
Myth: It is a wasp, so it can sting.
Truth: No. It is a hoverfly dressed up in wasp colours. It has no sting at all.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Syrphus vitripennis
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Syrphus vitripennis (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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