Hover flies (flower flies)
Syrphidae
Fly
Family-level entry for the wasp- and bee-mimicking flies that are among the most frequent flower visitors in North American gardens and, after wild bees, often considered the second-most important group of pollinators. Adults feed on nectar and pollen and favor shallow, accessible flowers — flat-topped Apiaceae umbels (golden-alexanders, fennel, dill) and open composite Asteraceae blooms — that their short mouthparts can reach. The larvae of roughly 40 percent of species are predators of aphids and other soft-bodied insects, with a single larva consuming up to several hundred aphids over its two-to-three-week development, making them important natural pest control alongside their pollination role.
Conservation
No syrphid species is listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and the family as a whole is widespread and common. Studies note that diversity and the number of specialist species fall sharply in areas of intensive land use, so the lack of formal listings may partly reflect limited research rather than an absence of threats. Providing a long succession of open, nectar- and pollen-rich flowers is the canonical garden action for supporting them.
Plants in the catalog
Nectar plants · 33
The open, accessible umbels are a classic hoverfly flower, freely visited for nectar and pollen.
Hoverflies are common visitors to early, open, accessible flower clusters like these.
Hover flies and other generalist flower visitors also feed at the open golden heads early in the season.
Hoverflies are frequent visitors to the small, open, easily accessed flowers, and their larvae also prey on the spindle's aphid colonies — a double link to this shrub.
Hoverflies (whose larvae eat aphids) are drawn to the open, flat flower heads — a key reason yarrow is grown as a beneficial-insect 'insectary' plant.
Hoverflies are frequent visitors to small, open, easily accessed tree flowers like these in spring.
Hoverflies visit the open flowers for nectar and pollen; their larvae are useful aphid predators, so the long bloom supports beneficial insects as well as bees.
Hoverflies are drawn to the open flat flower heads on warm winter afternoons.
Hover (syrphid) flies are characteristic visitors of the small accessible fertile florets of panicle hydrangea; graded plausible as a general observation on the fertile-flowered forms.
The open, accessible flower heads are readily visited by hoverflies, which are among rowan's main pollinators.
Hoverflies plausibly visit the late-autumn flowers for nectar alongside the bees.
Hoverflies and other small flies visit the open, nectar-bearing spring flowers alongside the bees; plausible rather than specialist, as the tree is generalist-pollinated and also relies on wind.
Pollen plants · 2
Hoverflies are common visitors to the broad, easily accessed cistus blooms.
Range
Cosmopolitan family with nearly 900 species across North America; specific species depend on region and habitat.