Flower fly looks like a yellowjacket wasp

By Aaron Horrell

The insect I have photographed here only has two wings. Bees and wasps have four wings. Obviously, this insect is a fly. More specifically, it is a fly known as a flower fly.

There are many different kinds and sizes of flower flies in North America -- so many, in fact, that entomologists have difficulty identifying and naming them.

The one I photographed here was at least the size of an adult carpenter bee. In my search of several websites, I could not find mention of a flower fly as large as this one.

It was several times larger than, but looked very similar to, the more common hover fly known as the "corn tassel fly."

Flower flies are important pollinators, as they fly from flower to flower in search of nectar. They are flies that have intelligently evolved to look like bees or wasps to protect themselves from predators such as birds and lizards. Flower flies do not sting.