Toxomerus marginatus (Syrphid Fly)
I’ve posted a picture of one of these before (see Thursday, April 05, 2012) but I like them quite a lot. They are a little tricky to get a good picture of because they are so small. Even with my macro lens focused all the way in they don’t come close to filling the frame. This is an uncropped shot, though, and it’s about as close as I can get with that lens. It helped that there was not the least bit of wind because it means that the plant was not moving, which only adds to the level of difficulty. The fly in this picture is on the stamen of a campanula of some sort. They seem to like this plant quite a bit, as there were a bunch of them about. While the adults feed on nectar and pollen, the larvae are “voracious predators of aphids, thrips, small caterpillars.” Any predator of aphids, thrips, and small caterpillars is a friend of mine.