It must be emphasised, however, that hoverflies - despite looking a bit waspy - are very much on the side of good, and do not deserve our hatred. Here's a tame one, eating from someone's hand:
I post this because I suddenly recall a particularly traumatic early exposure to The Evil That Wasps Do. I must've been seven or eight, but reasonably entomologically aware; I knew my bees from my flies (ho ho). Anyway, I was in my parents' garden when I heard an urgent, high-pitched buzzing coming from the foot of a rose-bush. At first glance, it looked like a couple of hoverflies mating. Looking closer, I realised the back 'fly' wasn't a fly but a wasp, and it wasn't shagging the hoverfly but eating it - alive, from behind. The fly's abdomen was almost completely gone.
Disgusted, I dropped a stone on both insects - and vowed that I would devote my life to fighting wasps. It was a bit like Batman. Except that my parents didn't die. |
