European Drone Fly

Here's another fly that looks like a bee and another invasive species, a European Drone Fly. The best clue that this isn't a bee (or wasp or flying ant) is that it only has 1 pair of wings (though admittedly some bees/wasps are small enough that it's hard to get a good look at their wings).

Like other syrphid flies, these flies are helpful to plants as pollinators; they have no interest in biting you.

They probably fit into our ecosystem pretty well partly because they've basically supplanted a similar native fly, the Hourglass Drone Fly. The Hourglass Drone Fly used to be one of our most common syrphid flies, and would probably get confused with the European Drone Fly except that the Europeans have out-competed [1] the Hourglasses throughout North America except for some areas around Hudson Bay.

June 11, 2022 at Duke Farms
Photo 209944365, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] It's possible that the European Drone Fly and Hourglass Drone Fly interbred, and we've really got hybrids that just look more like the European Drone Fly. Perhaps some Hourglass Drone Fly genes are still around in what looks like purebred European Drone Flies.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Watersnake

Image
This April I went to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with the hope (among other hopes) of seeing the Northern Watersnakes during mating season. There were 2 problems with this: I think it was slightly late in the season for this. The boardwalk trail where I had seen them in the past was partially closed due to repairs. So although I didn't see any of the 2+ intertwined snakes that I'd seen in the past, but there were still Northern Watersnakes warming themselves in the sun: April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272117862, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And here's another one coming out of the water. April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272119139, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Read more

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

Image
Like quite a few birds, this bird is easier to identify when spotted with her significant other ; she's a Brown-headed Cowbird . Due to their tendency to be monogamous plus plain old birds-of-a-feather behavior, I usually see them with prominently brown-headed males around, greatly improving my confidence in IDing them. My understanding is that Brown-headed Cowbirds are the only obligate brood parasites in my area. Obligate brood parasites have essentially lost all their parenting skills, and thus if they were ever unable to fool other birds into raising their young, they would (almost certainly) go extinct [1]. There are, however, other brood parasites in New Jersey. These are called facultative brood parasites, and these birds will usually raise their own offspring, but will also engage in brood parasitism. (Exactly when birds perform facultative brood parasitism seems variable; one source said it occurred when resources were scarce while another said it occurred when resource
Read more

Rooftop Turkey Vultures

Image
I met these Turkey Vultures by just walking out of my apartment. (I theoretically could have gotten a picture without going outside, but that extra layer of glass can degrade picture quality a little.) Although they don't show up on these rooftops daily, they're not an uncommon visitor to my apartment complex. Similar to this spot of the woods , I wouldn't expect this to be a great place to find carcasses. I'm thinking they're here mostly because: They don't have to worry much about predators up there. They get a pretty good view of the area in case something should happen to succumb. (This apartment was near the top of a hill, providing a better view than most of the other apartments.) Since this picture was from February, it's probably a slightly warmer spot, especially near those furnace vent pipes. Although these are Turkey Vultures, it's also not unusual to see Black Vultures up there too. February 28, 2023 at Finderne Photo 264703396, (c) jpviole
Read more