{"id":12055,"date":"2021-02-03T15:27:08","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=12055"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:28:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:28:30","slug":"black-winged-leafwalker-a-syrphid-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/black-winged-leafwalker-a-syrphid-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-Winged Leafwalker (a syrphid fly)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Note: All links below are to external websites and leave the 51ÁÔÆæ website.)<\/small><\/p>\n

Howdy, BugFans,<\/p>\n

OK \u2013 the last of the Water Hemlock series (unless\/until the BugLady discovers the ID of a really smashing ichneumon wasp that was also working the flowers).<\/p>\n

The BugLady was stumped by this one.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t spend much time in her vicinity; when it first landed, she thought it might be a moth, then a wasp. When she got home and put it up on the screen, it looked like it had been put together by the proverbial committee. She looked into family called the Mydas flies (Mydidae<\/em>), which have those \u201cmuscular\u201d femurs<\/a>, but the antennae were wrong, and she finally sent it to an real entomologist (thanks, BugFan PJ).<\/p>\n

Syrphid\/Hover\/Flower flies are often (but not always) delicately-etched bee and wasp mimics that nectar at flowers. They come in a large variety of flavors, from svelte to chunky, and from smooth to hairy, and not all of them are yellow and black:<\/p>\n