Sun fly
The sun fly is a hoverfly with yellow and black stripes on its back and a yellow, black and grey patterned tummy. It looks a bit like a wasp, but it is a harmless fly. Because of its stripy shirt, some people call it the footballer.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It often makes a buzzing sound even while it is sitting still.
Its larvae live in muddy puddles, ditches, wet cow dung and soggy old sawdust.
It is a great wanderer and can be found far away from water.
Each of its wings is about 1 centimetre long.
It is one of the most common hoverflies in Britain.
Most asked questions about Sun fly
?Does the sun fly sting?
No. It only looks a bit like a wasp. It is a fly and cannot sting.
?Why is it called the sun fly?
Probably by mistake. Its scientific name means marsh-lover, but someone mixed up the Greek word for marsh with the word for sun.
?What does the sun fly eat?
The grown-up fly visits flowers, and its larvae eat rotting bits in wet mud.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Helophilus pendulus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Footballer
Where the facts come from
- Helophilus pendulus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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