Hairy-legged Fly, a Gardener's Friend

Female Trichopoda pennipes. © Beatriz Moisset

Unsung insect heroes of the native plant garden abound. Pest fighters such as lady beetles, praying mantises and lacewings are receiving growing attention. But pest fighting doesn't end with the three above mentioned. Wasps and flies of many sorts provide invaluable pest control services. Let us look at one of them, the hairy-legged fly (Trichopoda pennipes).

Male Trichopoda pennipes. © Beatriz Moisset

The abdomen of the colorful hairy-legged fly is bright red or orange on the male and with a black tip on the female. Both wear funny looking bell-bottoms on their third pair of legs. This flare is made of a tuft of hairs that gives these flies their name. Like all other flies, they have only one pair of wings. The back wings have been reduced to small balancers, called halteres, hard to see in most species. This fly is the exception. The halteres are relatively prominent and bright orange. If you have been struggling to identify flies by the number of wings and the presence of halteres, you want to start with this example.

They are often seen visiting flowers and drinking nectar. Thus they may perform some pollination. But their most important role in the garden is what they do to feed their young. They hunt a variety of insects on which they lay a single egg. When the baby or larva emerges from the egg, it drills into the hapless bug and proceeds to eat its insides.

Green stinkbug, Chinavia hilaris. © Beatriz Moisset

Two insidious pests are among its favorite hosts: the green stink bug and the squash bug. The green stink bug attacks a number of crops, including corn, cotton and soy bean. The squash bug feeds on squash and related vine crops.

Squash bugs, Anasa tristis on pumpkin. © Beatriz Moisset

The hairy-legged fly deserves more recognition than it gets. If you want to encourage it to visit your garden, reduce or eliminate pesticides and provide native flowering plants that bloom through the seasons so the adults find nourishment. If you are helping pollinators you are probably doing all this already.

Male Trichopoda pennipes. © Beatriz Moisset

References
Just the fly for your pumpkin patch


For more on pollinators and other flower visitors read the e-book:
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2014

Flower Longhorn Beetles, the Elegant Crowd

Strangalia luteicornis on buttonbush
© Beatriz Moisset

 Most beetles we are familiar with are roundish or oval-shaped hard shelled insects. Think ladybugs or Japanese beetles. Others are a little longer and cigar-shaped. An entire group of beetles distinguishes itself for its elegant streamlined figure; these are the so called flower longhorns. The name refers to their love of flowers as a hangout and to their long antennae. No, they don't have real horns, just antennae like other insects. Sometimes these organs can be longer than their entire body.

Strangalia famelica, the hungry strangalia
© Beatriz Moisset

Flower longhorns are the fashion models of the beetle world. Their slender and highly stylized outline is reminiscent of that of wasps; although they would never be mistaken by such because they have the characteristic hard shell (elytra) of all beetles covering their membranous wings. In their elegance they would make a nice fashion parade. Some carry their slenderness to the extreme of appearing anorexic. In fact one of them was given the scientific name of famelica, which means starved one in Latin. By contrast, the banded longhorn (Typocerus) and Brachyleptura appear almost obese, although they are still rather slender when compared to most beetles.

Brachyleptura rubrica covered with pollen
© Beatriz Moisset

The banded longhorn, Typocerus velutinus on milkweed

© Beatriz Moisset

Flower longhorns love flat open blossoms of the umbrella type, such as the members of the carrot family. They also like flowers of the rose and aster family as well as wild hydrangea. They feed on their pollen. Sometimes you find several different types amiably mingling together on these flowers. They are regarded as lesser pollinators of such plants. It is not surprising, when you see some of them coated with pollen.

A couple of Metacmaeops vittata on wild hydrangea

© Beatriz Moisset

Their larvae don't have such wholesome habits. They are wood borers, meaning that they feed on wood. However none has been reported as a serious pest of trees. Perhaps trees have enough defenses against them or there are enough enemies to keep their numbers from getting out of control.

Analeptura lineola on wild hydrangea, with pollen on its back
© Beatriz Moisse

Flower longhorn beetles are a beautiful addition to the biodiversity of forests, well integrated with the remaining members of the community.

For more on pollinators and other flower visitors read the e-book:
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2014

The Great Impersonators, flower flies

Eristalis tenax, the drone fly, a honey bee mimic

© Beatriz Moisset

Why would one insect want to look like another? There must be some advantage in doing so. When it comes to flower flies the answer becomes apparent after a little observation.

These flies are found visiting flowers rather than garbage or dead meat like some of the flies you are most familiar with. They are rather pretty, with patterns of brown and yellow or black and yellow which easily remind you of bees. I have seen many a photographer deceived to the point of posting a picture of a flower fly claiming that it is a bee.

The goal of this remarkable imitation is not to fool photographers, of course, but rather hungry predators. Flower flies are delicious morsels of food that any bird would readily accept, but the fear of being stung by this bee mimic may lead him to think twice and skip this prey.

Some flower flies are about the size of a honey bee. The mimicry is so convincing that one of them is called the drone fly. Others are smaller and they may be imitating some of the lesser known and very abundant solitary bees. A few are long and thin and look like wasps, rather than bees.

Mallota bautias, a bumble bee mimic

© 2005 Beatriz Moisset

They can be distinguished from bees or wasps by the number of wings. Bees and wasps have four; flies have only two. The back wings have been reduced to little knobs, called halteres, used for balance. The halteres and the number of wings are hard to see when the insect is flitting about. Even when it rests on a flower, you continue to have trouble because a bee's front and back wings hook up appearing like a single unit.

Flower fly (left), bee (right)

Compare the size of the eyes

and the size and placement of the antennae

© Beatriz Moisset

Other differences are more obvious if you train your eye to see them. Flower flies have enormous eyes and tiny antennae that emerge from the front of the head, rather than higher up as in bees. Also flies are almost hairless and their legs are skinny when compared with those of bees. I hope all this helps you and saves you from embarrassing mistakes. I have seen business cards, article illustrations and even a book cover with a fly passing for a bee. So, if you still don't get them right, at least remember that you are in good company.

Toxomerus, mimics of small native bees

© Beatriz Moisset

In England, flower flies are called hover flies, an excellent description of their behavior. Some people in the US are adopting this name, so you may find either term in the growing literature on these interesting and useful insects.

A colorful flower fly

Helophilus, the sun lover

© Beatriz Moisset

These flies feed on nectar; sometimes they also eat pollen, especially the females who need this protein-rich food to produce eggs. This is why they spend so much time visiting flowers. Because of this habit they often end up carrying pollen from one blossom to another. They may not be as good pollinators as bees, but their role is not insignificant and deserves recognition. For instance, the so called drone fly is used to pollinate greenhouse sweet peppers.

Spilomyia sayi, a wasp mimic

© Beatriz Moisset

Let us applaud the bee impostors, flower flies or hover flies, for their role as pollinators.

For more on pollinators and other flower visitors read the e-book:
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

List of articles

© Beatriz Moisset. 2014