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How to Manage Pests:
Pest Management and Identification
Syrphid, flower, or hover flies
Flies
in the Syrphidae family, 1000 species in North America
Click on image to enlarge
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Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Syrphidae
Common prey: Predaceous on aphids and other small, soft-bodied
insects.
Commercially available: No
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Syrphid flies are regularly found where aphids are present in agricultural, landscape,
and garden habitats. Adults of this stingless fly hover around flowers, have
black and yellow bands on their abdomen and are often confused with honeybees.
Syrphid flies undergo complete metamorphosis with 3 larval instars. Females lay
their whitish to gray oblong eggs, each measuring 1 mm (1.32 inch), singly on
their sides usually near aphids or within aphid colonies. Larvae are legless
and maggot shaped and vary in color and patterning but most have a yellow longitudinal
stripe on the back. They can be distinguished from caterpillar larvae by their
tapered head, lack of legs and their opaque skin, through which internal organs
can be seen. Larvae vary in length from 1 to 13 mm (1/32 to 1/2 inch) depending
upon their developmental stage and species. Pupa are oblong, pear-shaped, and
green to dark brown in color. Pupation occurs on plants or on the soil surface.
Adult syrphid flies feed on pollen and nectar, while it is the
larval stage that feeds on insects. Larvae of predaceous species
feed on aphids and other soft-bodied insects and play an important
role in suppressing populations of phytophagous insects. Larvae
move along plant surfaces, lifting their heads to grope for prey,
seizing them and sucking them dry and discarding the skins. A single
syrphid larva can consume hundreds of aphids in a month. Not all
syrphid fly larvae are predaceous, some species feed on fungi.
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