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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Aschiza" » Hover Flies (Syrphidae) » Syrphinae

Subfamily Syrphinae

Classification · Numbers · Identification · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · Internet References · Works Cited

Insect for ID - Hypocritanus fascipennis

Syrphid - Syrphus or Eupeodes? - Eupeodes - female

Syrphid Fly - Melanostoma mellinum - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Diptera (Flies)

No Taxon ("Aschiza")

Family Syrphidae (Hover Flies)

Subfamily Syrphinae

Numbers

~300 spp. in 43 genera in our area(1)

Identification

Keys to most NA spp. in(2)

Adults have bare humeri (postpronotal lobes), though these are often hidden by the concave posterior of their close fitting heads.

Food

The larvae are primarily aphid predators. Some are generalists, others specialize in just a few species of aphids. Those in the Pipizini tribe specialize on gall forming aphids.

Adults exploit pollen and nectar produced by native plants having large inflorescences and flat corollae (e.g. Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Ranunculaceae and Rosaceae).

Life Cycle

1: egg. 2 and 3: larvae. 4 and 5 puparia

Remarks

Efficient biocontrol agents and minor pollinators.(3)

The classification of tribes is in flux; only Paragini and Toxomerini seem to be monophyletic. (Mengual et al. 2008)

Larvae have pairs of locomotory organs on the first six abdominal segments. These are not true prolegs because they lack musculature and crochets.

Internet References

Pacific Horticulture

Cladistics

Ecography

EoL

The Flower Flies of the Subfamily Syrphinae of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. Key to Nearctic genera and subgenera of Syrphinae, page 27.

Cornell U. Biological Control.

Annual Review of Entomology. Bionomics and Physiology of Aphidophagous Syrphidae

U. Cal. Flower Flies (Syrphidae) and Other Biological Control Agents for Aphids in Vegetable Crops

U. Cal. Bugg, R. L.

Works Cited

1.	Key to the genera of nearctic Syrphidae Miranda G.F.G, Young A.D., Locke M.M., Marshall S.A., Skevington J.H., Thompson F.C. 2013. Can. J. Arthropod Identification 23: 1-351.

2.	The flower flies of the subfamily Syrphinae of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland, Diptera: Syrphidae Vockeroth J.R. 1992. The insects and arachnids of Canada, Pt. 18. Ottawa: Agriculture Canada. 456 pp.

3.	Flower Flies (Syrphidae) and other biological control agents for aphids in vegetable crops R. Bugg et al. 2008. UC ANR Publication 8285.

Contributed by Beatriz Moisset on 10 March, 2005 - 1:53pm
Additional contributions by v belov, Chuck Sexton
Last updated 21 October, 2019 - 10:03am

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