Orange-spined Drone Fly
Eristalis nemorum
To attract mates, males perform precise hovering displays, suspending themselves perfectly still in mid-air before darting after rivals.
- Scientific name
- Eristalis nemorum
- Taxonomy
- Animalia › Arthropoda › Insecta › Diptera › Syrphidae › Eristalis
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Damp meadows, wetland margins, fenlands, ditches, and organic-rich mud pools.
- Diet
- Adults feed on pollen and nectar from flowers; larvae (rat-tailed maggots) filter-feed on microbes and decaying organic matter in stagnant water.
- Range
- Europe, Palearctic region, North America
- Size
- 8 to 11 mm in length
- Lifespan
- 1 to 2 months as adults; up to 1 year total lifespan including larval stage.
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Loss of wetland habitats, drainage of damp ditches, and widespread pesticide use in agricultural areas.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. Though it mimics a stinging bee to deter predators, the drone fly has no stinger and cannot bite. You can safely observe them from inches away as they hover near flowers. No action is needed if they land on you; they are harmlessly seeking moisture or salt.
Eristalis nemorum is a species of hoverfly. It is found in the Palearctic (Fennoscandia South to Iberia, the Balkans and Italy, Ireland eastwards through Central Europe into Turkey and Russia and on into the Russian Far East, Siberia and Japan) and in the Nearctic (Quebec south to Colorado).
Photo: ahabo, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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