These have always been known to me as sweat bees but I googled them to see what they are good for but something else entirely is consider a sweat bee. Fwiw....they are everywhere this year. As I sit on my swing waiting on supper to get done I have them landing on me left and right.
Hoverfly..... http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=hoverfly http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dorr/Insects/Predators/Hover_Fly/hover_fly.html
thanks Toni. that pointed me in the right direction. these are beneficial called hover flies. thanks deepwoods, also. I just sprayed my cucumbers in the greenhouse as they were covered with aphids. too bad I couldn't have gotten these in there to do their magic.
Hmmm...Thanks all. I think I have them hovering over the piles of coffee grounds I get from the coffee shop. They just seem to hover, seem harmless. I don't get the attraction to the coffee grounds though.
Here are 25 hover flies that I have taken, including the male and female. Perhaps yours is among them. Just click Hover Flies. You can click on the small pictures to see a bigger one.
@Kildale, Thank you!!! Who knew?? 25 varieties!? My own particular brand of hover fly only seems to appear shortly after I dump fresh coffee grounds on the pile. My husband contends they come with the coffee grounds, maybe they actually contribute to the unique flavor of coffee. Moving past that gross thought, I counter-contend that no, this is a rare case of spontaneous generation: damp used coffee grounds + outside compost pile = extremely rare spontaneous generation of LIFE!!!! Scientists said it couldn't be done, but we know differently!