Yellow-spotted Falsehorn

Here's a belligerent wasp that you wouldn't want to meet, right? Wrong! This isn't a wasp at all but a non-stinging hoverfly, more precisely the Yellow-spotted Falsehorn. Note that I won't be able to tell you a lot about this fly since it's one of those species (and genii) that doesn't have a lot written about it (at least online).

What I can tell you is that, like some other hoverflies like the Eastern Calligrapher and the Transverse-banded Flower Fly, these flies are bee/wasp mimics. In the insect world if you're not going to be dangerous yourself, it pays to at least look dangerous, and these guys do it by looking like someone who could sting you. And like the other hoverflies, as adults they do like their nectar.

As kids (larvae) these flies bore into and eat wood, though it sounds like they mostly go after rotting wood/logs; it's unclear that they're much of a threat to healthy trees.

The falsehorn flies shouldn't be confused with the horn flies, a group that feeds on the blood of cattle.

May 26, 2022 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 205018940, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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