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Syrphid Fly - female

Helophilus fasciatus

Description:

Helophilus from latin means 'sun lover' - These hover flies are active from early spring basking in sunny areas and nectaring from flowers. Helophilus species have a striped thorax. Eyes of Helophilus males do not touch, as they do in most other syrphid flies, and abdominal & facial details (females have a dark stripe extending from top of the head to antennae) are necessary to distinguish males (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/101...) from females.

Habitat:

Southern Canada to Mexico. Habitat in areas with flowers.

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7 Comments

Jeannette
Jeannette 11 years ago

Thank you Small Wonders :)

Small Wonders
Small Wonders 11 years ago

Thank you everyone for your nice comments!!

Small Wonders
Small Wonders 11 years ago

Jeannette, females have an extra stripe at the tip of their abdomen - compare to male: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/101.... They also have a dark stripe from the top of their head to their antennae - image 3

misako
misako 11 years ago

great macros!

Maria dB
Maria dB 11 years ago

Great series!

Gerardo Aizpuru
Gerardo Aizpuru 11 years ago

Incredible series !

Jeannette
Jeannette 11 years ago

Very nice series :)

Wondering how can you tell it's a female?

Small Wonders
Spotted by
Small Wonders

Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Spotted on Apr 2, 2012
Submitted on Apr 2, 2012

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