The Syrphinae constitute one of the three subfamilies of the fly

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Syrphidae. Most larvae of this subfamily feed on aphids. It is a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

group with more than 1,600 species.

Gallery

File:Melanostoma sp. (scalare^) Female. - Flickr - gailhampshire.jpg, ''

Melanostoma ''Melanostoma '' is a large genus of hoverfly, hoverflies. Little is known of their biology, but they are suspected to be general predators of small insects in leaf litter. Species"Melanostoma". Encyclopedia of Life, available from http://eol.o ...

'' sp. File:Platycheirus albimanus (male) - Flickr - S. Rae (3).jpg, ''

Platycheirus albimanus ''Platycheirus albimanus'' is a common widespread species of hoverfly. A holarctic species its range includes Greenland, Iceland, Britain, mainland Europe, Russia, across Siberia to the pacific coast, the Philippines, Alaska, western Canada an ...

'' (male) File:Skinny Flower Fly - Flickr - treegrow.jpg, ''

Ocyptamus fuscipennis ''Ocyptamus fuscipennis'' is a species of syrphid fly Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults ...

'' File:Sphaerophoria sp. (female) - Spain - Flickr - S. Rae.jpg, ''

Sphaerophoria ''Sphaerophoria '' is a genus of hoverflies. Species Subgenus '' Exallandra'' * '' Sphaerophoria cinctifacies'' (Speiser, 1910) * '' Sphaerophoria loewii'' Zetterstedt, 1843 Subgenus ''Loveridgeana'' *''Sphaerophoria beattiei'' (Doesburg and Doe ...

'' sp. (female) File:Syrphus sp. (male) - Flickr - S. Rae.jpg, '' Syrphus'' sp. (male) File:Toxomerus.marginatus02.jpg, '' Toxomerus marginatus'' File:Syrphid.maggot3554.5.13.08cw.jpg, Larva of '' Syrphus'' sp. feeding on aphids File:Eupeodes americanus.jpg,

Puparium A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

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Eupeodes americanus ''Eupeodes americanus'', the American hoverfly, is found throughout North America and inhabits meadows, and fields with flowers and foliage. Adults feed on nectar, whereas their larvae feed on aphids. The adult fly is black to metallic green, an ...

References

Bugguide,net
Subfamily Syrphinae

Encyclopedia of Life
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
The phylogeny and systematics of European predacious Syrphidae (Diptera) based on larval and puparial stages
Annual Review of Entomology
Bionomics and Physiology of Aphidophagous Syrphidae Syrphinae, {{Syrphidae-stub