Eurasian Drone Fly

Fascinating facts about the Eurasian Drone Fly

• The European drone fly first appeared in North America near Toronto in about 1885, after which it spread rapidly across the continent. Its presence is now recorded throughout most of the United States and Canada, making it a common sight far from its native range. Because it arrived by human introduction rather than natural dispersal, it is considered an introduced species on this side of the Atlantic.
• The larvae of Eristalis arbustorum develop in water but are not limited to pristine ponds; they thrive in shallow, nutrient-rich standing water as well as in cow-dung, silage pits and compost heaps where organic matter is abundant. In these environments they act as filter-feeders, extracting fine particles from the water column to obtain nutrition.
• Adult European drone flies can hover almost motionless while in flight, a trait that gave hoverflies their common name. They are often seen on a wide variety of low-growing plants and shrubs, allowing them to visit many flower species in a single foraging bout.
• The basal half of the arista is plumose, a feature that sets Eristalis arbustorum apart from its close look-alike E. This feathered portion of the antenna is mentioned as a primary diagnostic character in the species description. In addition to the plumose arista, E. arbustorum shows a less projecting mouth-edge and shorter hairs overall, further aiding identification when the two are compared.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Eurasian Drone Fly

In the warm, golden light of a summer's day, the Eurasian Drone Fly dances through the air with an effortless elegance, its iridescent body glimmering like a shard of stained glass as it hovers, poised, above a tapestry of wildflowers. With a gentle, lilting motion, it sips nectar from each bloom, its long, extendable tongue dipping and rising in a hypnotic rhythm, as if savoring the sweetest of secrets. As it moves, its delicate wings beat at a furious pace, a blur of motion that belies the serene, unhurried quality of its progression through the world.

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