Common Banded-hoverfly

The Common Banded Hoverfly has a black body with a pattern of yellow bands and a yellow ‘moustache’ on their face. Males have their eyes meeting on the top of the head, whilst females have their eyes widely separated. The female has an all-yellow hind femur and both sexes have the basal cells of the wings covered in tiny hairs.

The Common Banded Hoverfly is a very common hoverfly, occurring in hedgerows, gardens, farmland, parks and deciduous and coniferous woodlands.

Adults feed on the nectar and pollen of flowers, while the larvae feed on aphids.

This hoverfly is multiple brooded. The adults can be seen from March to November, peaking in May and early June and again in July to September. The larvae survive the winter as pupae.

The males create a hum when resting by vibrating their wings. The sound can often be heard as background noise when walking through woodland in summer.

Very common throughout Britain.