Marmalade Hoverfly

As stated above, this is a friendly fly which does a great deal of good. Sexes can be easily distinguished as in most, if not all, hoverflies the eyes of the male touch whereas those of the female have a space between them.

E. balteatus is one of the most common hoverflies in Britain, and can be seen much of the year. They visit a variety of flowers, but have a particular liking for dandelions.

The distinguishing marks are the 'moustache' shaped black marks on two of the yellow body sections. They also have faint grey stripes running longitudinally along the thorax, which show up best in a photograph.

Based on pictures I have seen on wikipedia, the female has a large black triangular shape on the last tail section, where the male has a small black smudge. It also appears that the female has narrower yellow patches which do not meet up on the section near the top of the body.

This looks like a wasp but is not, the larva is terrestrial and a voracious consumer of... read more aphids. With the adults being a pollinator, consider this a friendly bug.