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Project Noah Nature School
Chalcosyrphus piger
Medium sized fly (large for a Syrphid). Black head, thorax, legs and wings. Bright red abdomen. Seems to mimic wasps from Genus Astata, a spider wasp.
Suburban backyard garden, feeding at garlic chive flowers.
This fly came and left so quickly that this is the only picture (good or bad) I was able to get. Fortunately, it was enough for me to find the species! See link for better pictures of this interesting Syrphid fly.
Spotted on Sep 7, 2012
Submitted on Oct 19, 2012
2 Comments
Honestly, I thought it was a wasp for quite a while but I couldn't find a match. When I really looked closely at the picture I noticed that it had halteres. At that point I knew it was a fly. I ended up checking the Syrphids since I know a lot of them are wasp mimics.
Great photo! This is a very effective wasp mimic! Even the end tapers as if it had a stinger!