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Identifying Features: Often bee-like but hover in mid-air.

These flies, also called Flower flies, are often found nectaring in flowers and many have bee-like markings to protect them from predators.  They have the ability to hover in mid-air, then dart quickly forward. The are some of the earliest pollinating insects of the year and may be active on warm February days. The larvae of some species live in water and may have long abdominal tubes and can live in very oxygen poor polluted waters. These larvae, known as rat-tailed maggots, are indicators of poor water quality.
 

Identifying Features: Hovering fly, stout, with hourglass black pattern on upper part of abdomen, head wider than thorax.

This fly is commonly mistaken for a honey bee, although it has a larger head and more flattened body.  The males can be distinguished from females by having eyes which almost touch, while the female eyes are obviously separated.  It nectars on flowers starting in late April, often preferring yellow composite flowers such as asters and dandelions.  The female lays about 20 eggs in nutrient rich waters, often places like feedlot lagoons, or polluted ditches. 

Identifying Features: Hovering fly with densely hairy body and long, beak-like mouthpart, front parts of wing black.

This fly is found in July and August on bright sunny days as it hovers around flowers.  They readily are seen in gardens and hover and nectar like miniature hummingbirds. The females lay their eggs in the burrows of ground nesting solitary bees and the fly larvae parasitize the bee larvae, usually after the bee larvae pupates.
 

Identifying Features: Metallic shiny green thorax, bristly hairs on thorax and abdomen, large brown eyes.

This is an attractive fly, often found on an unattractive medium, dog poop!  They are active on warm summer days and can often be found around houses and yards.  The females lay eggs on carcasses of animals, the larvae develop in a few days and can cover a road kill with hundreds of squirmy maggots. The growth and development time of the larvae is a constant which can be used as a way to determine the time of death in forensic police work.  The larvae drop into the soil to pupate and emerge the next summer as adults.  This species has been successfully used in treating infected  wounds, the larvae are introduced to the puss filled wound and eat the dead tissue, leaving the live tissue to regrow. The maggots also produce a substance which effectively kills MRSA and other pathogens which do not respond to antibiotics

Identifying Features: Gray thorax with a metallic blue abdomen with black markings, legs and  body covered with bristly hairs.

These flies are attracted by foul odors, and feed and lay eggs in carrion or rotting organic material.  They are active when the daytime temperatures rise above 50 degrees. Larvae over winter.

Identifying Features: Four light gray stripes on the top of the thorax, dark red eyes, holds wings at an angle when at rest forming a triangular shape. 

This is perhaps the most widespread fly in the world, found where ever humans have created homes. They feed on a wide variety of foods, plant and animal, but have to predigest their meal by vomiting enzymes on it which they then soak up with their sponge-like tongue.  Males are territorial and will chase away other males from a small space. The female lays hundreds of eggs in moist decaying plants or animals or dung, the eggs hatch within a couple of days into larvae.

Identifying Features: Golden hairs on the thorax, black and white checkered pattern on abdomen.

This is a common house fly, often invading your house for a warm place to spend the winter. They often invade attics, sometimes in great numbers. Unlike the house fly, they do not pass along pathogens and are content mostly sleep away the winter.  In the spring they can be found buzzing against windows trying to get back outside.  The females lay eggs in cracks in the soil and the larvae burrow into the soil and attach themselves to earthworms.  They burrow inside the worm and feed on it,  then pupate and become adults. Adult flies can often be seen close to the ground in March and are active the rest of the spring and summer. 

Identifying Features:  Large red-brown eyes, gray thorax with 3-5 black stripes, bristles on side of thorax and just under the base of the wing.

These flies are found in areas of direct sunlight and are one of natures recyclers.  They deposit  their eggs on a dead animal, decaying vegetation or rarely, in a live animals wound.  The larvae may turn a road kill into a squirming mass of maggots, which might be gross, but is actually a service, cleaning up the dead.    Larvae over winter as pupae and emerge in the spring. The mites carried by the Carrion beetle eat these eggs when the two species compete for a carcass. Like the green bottle fly, the larvae of these flies can be used in forensic police work to determine the time of death.

Identifying features: Long legged fly with long beak used in females for biting.

This insect needs no introduction as it readily takes human blood and is found all over the world in all environments.  The female mosquito is the biting one, the males, which have feathery antenna, subsist on flower nectar or plant juice.  The blood which is extracted from you develops into hundreds of eggs which are lain in standing water.  The larvae develop and in a month or so they pupate at the surface then after a week climb out of their pupal casing and fly into the night searching for mates.

Identifying Features: Mosquito-like with long, fragile legs

There are many kinds of crane fly, and they can be active at any time of year, even in the winter.  Most are forest dwellers and live most their life in the soils, decomposing plant material.  However the European Crane Fly, Tipula paludosa has become a pest in lawns. This is one of the largest crane flies and the adults emerge in Late July and August, and often bumble their way into houses looking like gigantic mosquitoes.  The adults are harmless and are eagerly eaten by bats and birds.  The larva are commonly called leatherjackets and live in lawns, snacking on grass roots. They reach their largest size between April and July.  If the infestation is large, it can result in big patches of dead lawn.  It is easy to tell if you have these creatures, simply dig up a small patch of lawn, the leathery larvae are found in the top couple of inches of the soil.

Identifying Features: Fly with long dangling legs, round ball-like head with long beak-like mouthpart.

This fly uses movement and an offering of food to attract mates. On a warm day in April the male captures the largest insect it can carry and then uses this as bait to attract a female. The males gather together in specific places with just the right amount of warmth and cover and then fly up and down in a pattern.  Swarm sites can be used for several years so if you find one check it again next year.  As the female approaches, she picks a male and as she goes for his prey, he grasps her, they often fall to the ground and mate.  Later the  female lays her eggs in the soil, the larvae develop in the soil then spent the winter in a pupal case until early spring when the adults hatch.   These flies are common on early flowering plants such as Indian Plum and Willows where they readily drink nectar and wait for prey to fly by.

Identifying features:  Yellowish Abdomen with stout black bristles.

The is a representative of one of the largest groups of flies. They are all parasatoids, which means the larvae parasitize and kill the host.  When there are outbreaks of tent caterpillars, this fly comes to the rescue and lays an egg right between the eyes of the caterpillar. You can often find the caterpillars with this "third eye".  The egg hatches and the larvae burrows into the head of the caterpillar, killing it and consuming it.  Some species of tachnid flies broadcast tiny almost microscopic eggs which the caterpillars consume with the leaf and the developing  larvae then eat the caterpillar from inside.  Many species of tachnids are host specific and control a variety of types of insects. 

Identifying features: Black and white patterned wings, often on apples or hawthorns, red eyes, stiff bristle hairs on thorax.

This fly is a major pest for apples, the maggots burrow into the developing apple and make it unusable for most food products.  Adult flies are active from June through October and are often trapped  using special sticky tape. 

Identifying Features:  Short antennae low on the face, 3 small, extra eyes on the top of the head.

These are some of the earliest flies, often out in numbers in March. The adults can often be found sunning themselves on the sides of light colored rocks, logs, or houses and sometimes they are in clusters of several dozen.  They get their energy from the early flowering plants and may be found in Indian Plum and Red flowering currants.  The female lays eggs in the soil and the thin wiry  larvae may burrow into tubers.

Identifying features: Stout spiny legs, densely hairy  face.

These flies are  fast flying predators of smaller flies and insects.  They can often be seen as a flash of motion as they zoom into a cloud of mating midges or other insects.  They capture their prey in their stout front legs and then fly to a perch to eat it. It takes awhile for the fly to ingest its meal because it injects enzymes into its prey to liquefy its insides and then slurps it up through a straw-like beak.  Robber flies of the genus Promachus and Efferia are large, hairy and noticable and can capture prey as large as bumblebees, although mostly they prey upon smaller insects.  Some robber flies are small and you are most likely to notice them as they perch and consume their prey. There are some species of robber fly which are bumble bee mimics and probably use this disguise to help them ambush prey.

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Identifying Features:  Large red eyes, Gray thorax with large oval spots, gray and black banded abdomen, bristly hairy.

This is another early fly, often seen as the very first flowers such as crocus's or daffodils poke out of the ground.  The adults nectar on early flowers and their hairs transport pollen from plant to plant. The female lays eggs in the soil and the larvae attack the roots of some garden produce such as turnips, cabbage and broccoli, burrowing into the root causing the plant to wilt and die.

Identifying features:  Large fly, fuzzy and similar to a bumblebee, head broader than thorax, with a shiny black area on the thorax.

These are flies of gardens and parks. They are bumblebee mimics and nectar at flowers and help pollinate them.  The female lays an egg on the lowest leaf of a bulb plant, such as a daffodil and the larvae burrow down into the bulb where it feeds and then spends the winter before pupating and emerging as an adult in the April.

Identifying features:  Bumble-like with clear wings, long legs, short vertical antenna, hairy face and long beak

This yellow and black hairy fly is often mistaken for a bumble bee. It is a speed hunter and grabs honey bees and other small bees in flight, carefully holding them by the abdomen so not to get stung. If it grabs prey by the wrong end it quickly drops it, then attacks again to get the hold it wants. The females lay their eggs in forests, usually in old rotting logs. The larvae develop in the wood, burrowing tunnels and eating whatever they encounter.  The adults appear in June and are active on sunny warm days, often in meadows with flowers.