Syrphidae (Diptera) is an insect family of flies commonly known as flower or hoverflies with ± 6½ thousand species worldwide. They are excelent imitators of wasps, bees and bumblebees without the stinging. Because of their superb mimicry their importance in our ecosytem if often overlooked in favour of bees. Syrphids however provide the following main ecosystem services: pollination, long distance plant gene flow and natural biological control. In recent decades mass decline has been observed, probably due to the combination of pesticides, habitat loss, monoculture and climate warming.
This website is devoted to give you the best overview according to the latest scientific discoveries. Have a look as the "Syrphidae?" page for an overview.
22nd till 27th June 2026
The 13th International Syrphidae Symposium will be held in the Natural Park of Paneveggio (Italy, Alss).
As of september 2024 a new section is added to the syrphidae website: Relationships. A place where all type of associations around Syrphids in every cyclus of their live is brought together. Initially started as a project to add the hoverfly predatory database (Rojo et al 2003) to the site.
The content of www.syrphidae.com 1995-2025 by Bastiaan Wakkie is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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