Drone fly
Eristalis tenax (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status not recordedinsects
The drone fly (Eristalis tenax) is a species in the family Syrphidae, order Diptera.
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Quick facts about the drone fly
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the drone fly live?
Not recorded
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the drone fly as introduced in 2 countries.
Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).
Is the drone fly endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the drone fly classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderDiptera
- familySyrphidae
- genusEristalis
- SpeciesEristalis tenax (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Conops vulgaris, Eristalis campestris, Eristalis claripes, Eristalis cognatus, Eristalis columbicus, Eristalis hortorum, Eristalis nili, Eristalis rubix, Eristalis sinensis, Eristalis sylvaticus, Eristalis tenax campestris, Eristalis tenax var. alpina, Eristalis tenax var. claripes, Eristalis ventralis, Eristalis vulpinus, Eristalomya tenax, Helophilus horridus, Helophilus tenax, Musca apiformis, Musca porcina, Musca tenax
Other names and names in other languages (56)
- Bee mimicking hover flyEnglish
- Common drone flyEnglish
- Rattailed maggotEnglish
- HommelvliegAfrikaans
- عويسبة ملحةArabic
- Mosca AbellotCatalan
- pestřenka trubcováCzech
- DroneflueDanish
- SchlammbieneGerman
- Mosca zángano europeaSpanish
- Harilik mudasirelaneEstonian
- KuhnurikärpänenFinnish
- eristaleFrench
- רקבן הבוץHebrew
- Dron pršilicaCroatian
- Közönséges herelégyHungarian
- Eristalo tenaceItalian
- ナミハナアブJapanese
- 꽃등에Korean
- Srutinė žiedmusėLithuanian
- stor droneflueNorwegian Bokmål
- Blinde bijDutch
- stor droneflugeNorwegian Nynorsk
- Gnojka wytrwałaPolish
- Mosca-Zângão EuropeiaPortuguese
- Sisan ChuspiQuechua
- Ильница цепкаяRussian
- trúdovka obyčajnáSlovak
- Navadna kalnicaSlovenian
- Обична лебдилицаSerbian
- storslamflugaSwedish
- Ільниця хваткаUkrainian
- 長尾管蚜蠅Chinese
- KeilfleckschwebfliegeGerman
- MistbieneGerman
- Scheinbienen-KeilfleckschwebfliegeGerman
- Mosca AbejaSpanish
- MoscabejaSpanish
- kuhnurisurriFinnish
- asticot à queue-de-ratFrench
- Éristale communeFrench
- Éristale gluantFrench
- Éristale gluanteFrench
- Éristale tenaceFrench
- Mouche pourceauFrench
- Syrphe apiformeFrench
- Ver à queue de RatFrench
- Pčelolika cvjetaricaCroatian
- Ильница обыкновеннаяRussian
- Пчеловидка обыкновеннаяRussian
- Ильница-пчеловидкаRussian
- Obična lebdilicaSerbian
- bilik slamflugaSwedish
- stor slamblomflugaSwedish
- Бджоловидка звичайнаUkrainian
- Мулянка звичайнаUkrainian
Relatives of the drone fly
Other species in the same genus Eristalis.
Eurasian drone fly
Eristalis arbustorum
Furry Dronefly
Eristalis intricaria
Tapered drone fly
Eristalis pertinax
Stripe-winged drone fly
Eristalis horticola
Bog hoverfly
Eristalis cryptarum
Orange-spotted drone fly
Eristalis anthophorina
CompareDrone fly vs Eurasian drone flyDrone fly vs Furry DroneflyDrone fly vs Tapered drone flyDrone fly vs Stripe-winged drone fly
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
Is the drone fly an invasive species?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the drone fly as introduced in 2 countries: South Africa and United States, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.
What kind of animal is the drone fly?
The drone fly (Eristalis tenax) belongs to the family Syrphidae in the order Diptera.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.
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Herberstein, M.E., McLean, D.J., Lowe, E. et al. (2022) AnimalTraits: a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size. Scientific Data 9: 265. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01364-9. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6468938 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
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Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
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Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - Palmer Archipelago penguin measurements (Palmer Station LTER) · CC0 1.0 · 0.1.0
Gorman, K.B., Williams, T.D. & Fraser, W.R. (2014) Ecological sexual dimorphism and environmental variability within a community of Antarctic penguins (genus Pygoscelis). PLoS ONE 9(3): e90081. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090081. Data: Palmer Station Antarctica LTER, via Horst, A.M., Hill, A.P. & Gorman, K.B. (2020) palmerpenguins. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3960218 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
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Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision). - Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species · CC BY 4.0 · 2018-07
Che-Castaldo, J.P., Byrne, A., Perišin, K. & Faust, L.J. (2019) Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species. Scientific Data 6: 190019. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2019.19. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7539968.v1
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CreatureData. (2026). Drone fly (Eristalis tenax). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/drone-fly
“Drone fly (Eristalis tenax).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/drone-fly.
@misc{drone_fly_2026,
title = {Drone fly (Eristalis tenax)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/drone-fly},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}