As promised, here is a speckled-eyed Native Drone Fly. It makes a droning noise like a bee. It’s a type of hoverfly and I don’t recall photographing this one before now.
Eristalinus punctulatus: Native Drone Fly
The pretty star-shaped flowers bloom on a succulent in my yard.
The wing veining is beautiful.
We have a Native Golden Drone Fly – with golden stripes instead of the grey.
Those huge eyes are not particularly attractive! Apparently some drone flies have striped eyes, instead of speckles.
Images taken with the Nikon D3000, in guide mode.
Thanks for looking. Have a good day. 🙂
Christine R 
What an attractive little fellow. The markings are very unusual, the eyes kinda spoil the picture though
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, the eyes have ruined what would be a fairly decent-looking bug! Thanks, Sue. 🙂
LikeLike
The wings are so clear and the body interesting. 😀
Magnificent closeup.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The body is so ugly in contrast to the wings! Thanks Tess. It’s good to have the Nikon in action again.
LikeLike
Gorgeous! Love the stripes on its body and those delicate wings. Beautiful, Christine!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The wings are awesome! Thanks for dropping by, Julie.
LikeLike
Fantastic close ups Christine!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Sue. 🙂
LikeLike
What patience and skill you have. These photographs are remarkable in their clarity and differing views. Looking at your work has increased my understanding of the creative beauty of nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks you for your kind words, Janet. Taking photos for my blog has opened up an astounding new world to me, and it’s been under my nose the whole time!
LikeLike
I live in the region north of the Magaliesberg mountain range in South Africa at an elevation of about one-thousand-and-three-hundred meters.
I do a certain amount of insect photography. As a bee-keeper I especially keep an eye open for solitary bees and other pollinating insects.
I recently caught sight of an insect which at first sight looked to me like a wild bee because of its abdominal markings. However, I soon was able to classify it as a fly – suchlike I had never seen before. There is the single pair of wings, the huge compound eyes and a thick proboscis. It was dabbing away on the disc florets of a dahlia inflorescence.
I determined it to belong to the Eeristalinus genus. However, it is not of the same species as shown in your website. The markings on the abdomen and in the eyes differ. The former consist of complete rings around the abdomen – alternatively dark and light – the pattern which made me think at first that I was looking at a solitary bee. In the eyes the dots are gathered into stripes.
I should like you to take a look at the picture I have but don’t know how to go about sending it.
LikeLike
I’m not expert! Why not pop the image up on your Google+ site and I can look at it there. There are probably 100 species worldwide by the looks of wikipedia. Now that I’ve seen one hoverfly, I often see them, yet I’ve never noticed them until last year. Thanks for visiting my blog.
LikeLike
I was able to identify my drone fly. It’s name: Eristalinus taeniops. The specific name points to its most startling feature: the striped eyes.
View it at this spot: http://www.insettieanimali.altervista.org/I-ditteri/Eristalinus_taeniops.html
LikeLiked by 1 person
Amazing!
LikeLike