The furry brown body and long proboscis make this insect easy to recognise, it's a bee fly, Bombylius major (Bombyliidae), that appears early in Spring. It's not a bee but a true fly as it only one pair of wings. The adults feed on the nectar on m
A pretty green fly, one of the species of Solieria (Tachinidae)
An extreme-macro shot of Solieria sp. (Tachinidae). The bristles on the head remind me of stitched wounds on zombies.
Episyrphus balteatus , sometimes called the Marmalade hoverfly. A relatively small hoverfly from the Syrphidae family.
The head of Episyrphus balteatus (Syrphidae). The small stalked yellow blob is a haltere - one of a pair a highly modified wings that are used to stabilise flight.
The hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus . You can tell this one is a male because the eyes are touching each other on top of the head.
A close-up of the head of the hoverfly, Xylota segnis .
One of the larger hoverflies, Chrysotoxum cautum . The pattern of yellow and back bands are important for species identification.
The big and scary Crossus hoverfly, Volucella inflata , is a bumblebee mimic, but completely harmless. Members of this genus all have plumose aristae (the fine feathery bristles on the antennae).
The head and huge eyes of the Crossus hoverfly, Volucella inflata . This image reminds me of a fighter jet.
The hoverfly, Chrysotoxum festivum. Members of this genus all have elongate antennae which point forwards
The Drone fly, Eristalis tenax, a hoverfly that mimics a honey bee.
The commonest hoverflies with yellow and black bands that visit flowers belong to the genus Syrphus . This is Syrphus ribesii .
The eyes of this female hoverfly are well-separated and don’t meet on top of the head as they do in males. This is one of the S yrphus species.
This hoverfly, Xanthogramma pedissequum , has very striking yellow and black bands and a bright yellow face. The larvae are believed to live in the nests of ants.
The St Mark's fly, Bibio marci , emerges around St Mark's Day, April 25th. These flies are members of the Bibionidae family which contains 20 species in the UK. This is the head of a male that has huge black hairy eyes.
Not all flies are cuddly. Meet Lipoptena cervi , the deer ked or deer fly, a species of blood-sucking insect from the louse fly family, Hippoboscidae. The winged adults are common in the autumn where deer occur. Once the fly has found a deer, its w
Twin-spot centurion Soldier fly, Sargus bipunctatus (Stratiomyidae).
Typical horseflies belong to the genus Tabanus . They are medium to very large, clear-winged insects with eyes that are hairless but which often have coloured bands. There are 8 species of Tabanus in the UK but they are quite difficult to separat
If you have ever wondered what a Daddy-long-legs face looks like, here it is. There are about 300 different species of Crane-fly in the UK - this is Ctenophora pectinicornis . The larvae can cause serious damage to crops and garden plants, but the
The cat recently gifted us a present that subsequently died somewhere in the house so we then had a house full of bluebottles, Calliphora sp . (probably C. vomitoria due to the orange "beard").
Flies generally get a bad press for their rather unsavoury habits and food preferences, but close up they are remarkable and quite beautiful, if you don't mind all those bristles. This is one of the Greenbottles, either Lucilia caesar or Lucilia
Robber flies are bristly predatory flies that chase and catch other insects in mid-air. The prey are then sucked dry with the stout proboscis. The face is covered with hairs to protect the eyes from struggling prey. Not one of the cuddly insects.
A female Twin-spot centurion (Sargus bipunctatus) soldier fly (Stratiomyidae). Soldier flys get their name because their striking colours remind people of old fashioned soldier's uniforms. They are important pollinators and their larvae feed on deca
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