Australian garden insects with Denis Crawford
Melon aphids (Aphis gossypii) are major pests of lots of different plants throughout the world. I first had them on my cucumber plants a couple of months ago, and now they have moved onto my zucchini plants.
What did I do? Spray the aphids with insecticide? Pull the plants out?
Check the video to find out!
What would you have done? Please let me know in the comments.
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.
Insects that are armed with powerful stings are often strikingly coloured to warn off potential predators – a strategy known as aposematism . A good example of this is the black and yellow colour pattern of the European wasp (Vespula germanica).
Some harmless insects take on the appearance of aposematic insects even though they are not actually dangerous themselves. Hover flies are an example of this. One common hover fly species – the drone fly Eristalis tenax – is an excellent bee mimic, and was the star in a recent ‘one minute bugs’ video (link).
Other common hover flies (image below) are harmless flower visitors but their striking yellow and black markings superficially resemble the markings of bees or wasps. Bees and wasps usually have stings and consequently are left alone by many predators. Hover flies don’t have stings, so by adopting colour patterns similar to bees and wasps this affords the hover flies some protection. This defence strategy is known as Batesian mimicry.
