Watching the stages of the four speckled hover fly in my insect tent has been fascinating. I haven’t seen the eggs, but I’m pretty sure they are nearby and I just don’t know what to look for yet. But the larval stage has been fun. The instar that I noticed was a beautiful green that blended with the background of milkweed leaf so well that I had to do a doubletake.
Then I got a video of the pulse of the larva.
Insects don’t have traditional hearts, so a heartbeat probably isn’t the right term.
Twenty four hours later and my larva has moved off the tent wall and is now hardened and changed color.
We’ll see what comes of this. Hopefully it will be a shiny new hover fly that will make more new larvae ready to eat my annoying aphids.
Buzzing Blossoms 