Every insect looks prettier when it lands on a tower of jewels
(Echiium wildpretti). When in full bloom, the 9-to-10-foot-high
plant, native to the Canary Islands, blazes with firecracker-red
flowers. It's a showstopper. Syrphid flies, aka flower flies or
hover flies, battle with honey bees to sip the sweet nectar. The
flower flies flit in and out of the blossoms, barely visible.
However, these insects suffer from an identity crisis. Their
wasp-like coloring wards off predators. That same coloring
confuses people, too. The average person on the street--or in a
flower bed--thinks they're bees. They're not. They're flies. UC
Davis-trained entomologist Robert Bugg wrote an excellent
pamphlet on flower flies that's downloadable free from the UC
Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Titled Flower
Flies (Syrphidae) and Other Biological Control Agents
(Publication 8285, May 2008), it will help you identity flower
flies. Not bees. Not wasps. Flies. Cosmos flowers are somewhat
like Libras. They balance. In fa