Hover Fly, a growers good friend

Police aren’t the only good guys at the Police Station.

This arresting creature I snapped today is really good too, the Hoverfly is in the Family of insects known as Syrphidae. If you see one of these be kind they are very important to all growers

The adults feed mainly on nectar and pollen, and can be seen in garden borders hovering near the flower heads. There are many species and some have striking markings like wasps to deter predators.
The larvae feed on aphids and other plant-sucking insects and each will eat about 50 aphids a day. The female lays an egg near to the sucking pests, she does this many, many times, and the larvae hatches a few days later and is fully developed after about three weeks.
The pupal stage lasts for a further two to three weeks depending on the weather and temperature. There may be several generations in a year, but the final generation overwinters as pupae in the soil before emerging the following spring.
I took the photo at this maize bed by the station door, the hoverfly was resting on a leaf of one of the tomato plants growing with the corn.

They are sometimes used commercially as a biological control of aphids. The adults also aid pollination hovering around flowers.

So please don’t mistake our good friends the hoverflies for wasps or bad guys, we need all the help we can get, just say “hi fly” and let him go by.