Common Drone Fly

Southern Downs InsectsSouthern Downs Beetles Southern Downs Butterflies & Moths Australian Emperor Common Drone Fly Scarlet Percher

Species Eristalis tenax is known as the Common Drone Fly and a Hover Fly. It is the most widely distributed syrphid species in the world (having been introduced into North America), known from all regions except the Antarctic.

Eristalis tenax is a large, stocky bee mimic and can vary in colour from dark brown to yellow-orange. Sometimes mistaken for the honey bee, it can be differentiated from the honey bee, as it does not have a constricted “waist” between the thorax and the abdomen. Being a fly, it only has two wings, whereas bees have four wings.

There is sexual dimorphism between the male and female drone flies, the males tend to have lighter patterns than females and the males have large eyes which almost touch each other, whereas females have smaller eyes that are spaced further apart.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Informal: Pterygotes
Order: Diptera
Unranked: Cyclorrhapha
Informal: Aschiza
Superfamily: Syrphoidea
Family: Syrphidae
Subfamily: Eristaliinae
Tribe: Eristalini
Subtribe: Eristalina
Genus: Eristalis
Subgenus: infrageneric Eristalis
Species: Eristalis tenax

Footnote & References

Eristalis (Eristalis) tenax (Linnaeus, 1758), Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/Eristalis (Eristalis) tenax
Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/55719-Eristalis-tenax

Southern Downs InsectsSouthern Downs Beetles Southern Downs Butterflies & Moths Australian Emperor Common Drone Fly Scarlet Percher

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