If you stand perfectly still and don't make any jerky movements, you can usually get a close-up image of a black syrphid fly, a Mexican cactus fly, Copestylum mexicanum.
It's Friday Fly Day and this one was nectaring on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia.
Mexican cactus fly on a Mexican sunflower? Yes!
The female Mexican cactus fly lays its eggs in rotting or dying cactus tissue.
To the untrained eye, syrphid flies--aka hover flies or flower flies--are often mistaken for honey bees.
Flies, however, have one pair of wings, have shorter "stubby" antennae, and large compound eyes that take up most of their head.
Bees have two pairs of wings, longer antennae, and have "narrow" eyes on the sides of their head.
Both flies and bees eat pollen, but flies have no special structures for collecting/carrying it.
But just like honey bees, syrphid flies are pollinators!
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