Australian garden insects with Denis Crawford
Most people are familiar with spider hunting wasps, but have you ever heard of flies that kill spiders?
All known species of flies in the family Acroceridae – otherwise known as ‘spider flies’ – are internal parasites of spiders. In other words, their larvae feed inside spiders.
It’s how the larvae manage to get inside the spider that makes this story interesting. Let me know if you like the video!
There are many species of flies across several families that are associated with fungi. In the video I talk about a few of them, but these fighting flies steal the show!
The males of the species (Tapeigaster sp.) are noted for perching on the top of various fungi – including common ones like field mushrooms. On small fungi there is usually only one male per fungal cap, and he tries to defend it from competing males. The aim is to mate with a female that is attracted to the fungus. She wants to lay her eggs in the gills of the fungus so the hatching larvae can feed on the fungus.
Check out the video to see what happens!
Subtitle: Watch a hover fly larva eat the aphids on my cucumbers
Hover flies (Syrphidae) are common insects in gardens. We see them flying around flowers – hovering in mid-air like mini helicopters. The adult hover flies feed on nectar and pollen and are important pollinators.
Hover fly larvae are ferocious aphid-eating maggots. Hover fly larvae are the most effective aphid predators in my garden. They can be a bit hard to see, especially when they are in their early larval stages, but a hand lens of some sort will help.
I hope you enjoy the video. I’ve wanted to shoot some decent footage of hover fly larvae for ages!
I am trying something a bit different with this video. I’m not in it! Let me know what you think in the comments.