Question: Hello, can hoverflies sting? What is the difference between hoverflies and wasps? Thank-you

John Paterson answered on 17 Jun 2019:

No hoverflies can’t sting, they are just trying to fool other animals. They have evolved to look like wasps or bees because this protects them from predators that would eat them. They look like something the predator knows to avoid so they don’t get eaten even though the hoverfly is harmless. This is an example of what we call ‘Batesian mimicry’, named after the scientist Henry Bates, where animals have evolved to look like each other to protect themselves.

Hoverflies do look a lot like wasps and I couldn’t always identify them at first but once you learn the difference they’re actually quite easy to tell apart. A couple of ways are that wasps always have a very narrow waist, which not all hoverflies have, and wasps have jaws, which they use to bite things, while hoverflies have a spongy mouth to eat pollen and nectar.