Big Head

Identification - Eristalinus megacephalus.

I have photographed this fly many times, but not recently. When I did photograph it, I did not have the pixels to crop in and show the detail that I wanted to share with you.

A hoverfly of the family syrphidae, has the distinctive features of a true fly; the short blade antennae with the protruding hair, the halteras that replace the second pair of wings (not visible in this image). This fly has a long, dagger like retractable forked tongue and seen on bees, used for collecting pollen.

Its most distinctive feature is the large yellow eyes, covered in dark speckles. The dark blotch is the part of the eye that is looking at you and the blotch moves around the eye as you change position. The fly is not actually following you, but merely the facets that are directly inline with your vision, a bit like red-eye on family photographs.

A very wasp/bee look about it with its bright yellow and black stripes, but completely harmless with no sting. A good pollinator, so leave alone, they are the good guys.

This has nothing to do with blip, but I have read it three times now and it still makes me cry laughing.

Dave