{"id":106717,"date":"2026-06-04T13:39:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T08:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=106717"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:44:30","slug":"new-hoverfly-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/new-hoverfly-species\/","title":{"rendered":"New Hoverfly Species"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>New Hoverfly Species Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recently discovered two new species of hoverflies named Eristalinus sapphirinus and Eristalinus brunettii from the Gangetic Plains of West Bengal.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Eristalinus sapphirinus and Eristalinus brunettii<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are two new <\/span><b>species of hoverflies.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were discovered from the<\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indo-gangetic-plains\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Gangetic Plains<\/a> of West Bengal.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Eristalinus sapphirinus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is <\/span><b>named for its striking, sapphire-blue metallic coloration.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Eristalinus brunettii<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is named in <\/span><b>honour of entomologist\u00a0 Enrico Adelelmo Brunetti, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">acknowledging his immense historical <\/span><b>contributions to the study of Indian Diptera (flies).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The discovery expands the known diversity of the Eristalinus genus in India, with the last major contribution to the group&#8217;s taxonomy dating back to 1923.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Members of the<\/span><b> Eristalinus genus support ecosystems in two distinct life stages.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>As adults<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, they act as <\/span><b>critical pollinators<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for wild and cultivated plants.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>As larvae<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (commonly known as &#8220;<\/span><b>rat-tailed maggots<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;), <\/span><b>they develop in aquatic habitats <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">where they<\/span><b> decompose organic matter <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>recycle essential nutrients.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What are Hoverflies?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoverflies, often referred to as<\/span><b> flower flies or drone flies,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>beneficial insects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that <\/span><b>appear in large numbers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the<\/span><b> spring and summer.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They belong to the order Diptera and the family Syrphidae.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are often <\/span><b>mistaken for bees or wasps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and can cause undue fear over possible stings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However,\u00a0 they<\/span><b> do not possess stingers.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoverflies can be readily<\/span><b> distinguished from wasps and bees by their single pair of wings<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In comparison, bees and wasps have two pairs of wings.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hover flies also have a<\/span><b> typical fly head with short antennae and bulbous eyes.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Adult hover flies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are 4-10 mm long and have <\/span><b>dark flattened bodies with black and yellow markings.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>During flight,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> many hover flies<\/span><b> move in a characteristic way. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As their name suggests, they <\/span><b>hover over objects but will also dart to and fro.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hoverflies are among the <\/span><b>most important pollinators globally, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">providing pollination services to many crops and natural vegetation. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2268500&amp;reg=48&amp;lang=2#:~:text=Named%20Eristalinus%20sapphirinus%20and%20Eristalinus,contribution%20dating%20back%20to%201923.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>PIB<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eristalinus sapphirinus and Eristalinus brunettii are two new species of hoverflies discovered from the Gangetic Plains of West Bengal. Read more about New Hoverfly Species, Habitat, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":106693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7958,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-106717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-new-hoverfly-species","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106717"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106734,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106717\/revisions\/106734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}