Beautiful Hover Fly
Female, Posterior
Ellura
Wasp-mimicking Hover Fly
Dorsal
 
                      
Wasp-mimicking Hover Fly (Ceriana ornata ssp ornata)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Flies (Diptera)
Family: Hover Fly (Syrphidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Wasp-mimicking Hover Fly (Ceriana ornata ssp ornata)
This Photo:     Near Bee Hive

Thank you Reiner Richter for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
This is primarily a Qld species that invades bee hives. As we have no native bee hives in SA, we suspect they've travelled south using/breeding/surviving thru European bee hives. Andras Szito (WA DPIRD) said "I believe your suspicion is well founded. I am aware of (sometimes large scale) movement of used bee hives between the states. If some brought in some used, uncleaned hives with some dead combs in them from Qld where Ceriana is quite common then there is a high likelihood that there were viable Ceriana in it. I guess it is well adapted to European bee hives that contains a lot greater amount of honey than native bees." Thanks for your thoughts Andras


ergo It is also introduced.

Copyright © 2016-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 13-Apr-2016
This species is classed as Ir (Regionally Introduced)