Hover Flies (Tribe: Syrphini) in Manitoba
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Introduction to Syrphid Flies
Family Syrphidae (Order: Diptera) is a very large family including medium to large eye-catching flies. They are commonly known as syrphid flies, hover or flower flies. There are 6000 described species in the world and more than 870 species in North America (Eaton and Kaufman 2006). Microdontinae, Eristalinae and Syrphinae are the three subfamilies in Family Syrphidae (Vockeroth 1992). Many species are very colorful and coloration varies from yellow, orange, red, brown, metallic or black and any combination in between. Hoverflies are quickly mistaken for wasps, bees or bumblebees as they are mimices of stinging wasps and bees (Hymenoptera). Flower Flies are economically important in agro ecosystem as pollinators, predators of crop pests such as aphids, thrips and scales (Vockeroth 1992).
Distribution
