{"id":10152,"date":"2026-08-30T10:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T10:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=10152"},"modified":"2026-09-02T03:41:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T03:41:39","slug":"2026-08-football-jersey-on-the-sun-fly-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-08-football-jersey-on-the-sun-fly-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Snoring flies and football jerseys: Meeting the sun fly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sun fly (<em>Helophilus pendulus<\/em>)\u2014affectionately known as the footballer hoverfly\u2014is one of Europe\u2019s most charming and easily recognizable insects. Sporting bold, vertical black-and-yellow stripes across its chest that look remarkably like a classic retro football kit, this colorful meadow visitor is an absolute delight to photograph. Despite belonging to the hoverfly family, this species doesn&#8217;t spend much time hovering at all. Instead, it moves with a slow, jerky flight path and prefers to spend its days walking across broad leaves or sunbathing in open clearings. When taking a quiet rest, they are even known to emit a soft, steady buzz that sounds like snoring! While most hoverfly males have giant eyes that touch at the top of their head, the sun fly breaks the rule book: both males and females keep a clear gap between their eyes. Their aquatic young\u2014famously known as &#8220;rat-tailed maggots&#8221;\u2014live in wet organic mud, using a long, telescopic tail like a snorkel to breathe air while feeding underwater. As adults, they wander far from the water to feast on nectar from ivy, shrubs, and wildflowers. I met this cute contestant\u2014looking ready to win a &#8220;Miss Hoverfly&#8221; beauty pageant\u2014in a vibrant, flowery meadow near Barkarby, Sweden!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sun fly (Helophilus pendulus)\u2014affectionately known as the footballer hoverfly\u2014is one of Europe\u2019s most charming and easily recognizable insects. Sporting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[414,82,488],"tags":[],"countries":[63,76],"order-category":[44,404,60],"class_list":["post-10152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-omnivores","category-pollinators","category-saprophages","countries-europe","countries-sweden","order-category-insects-flies","order-category-insects-flies-hoverflies","order-category-insects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10157,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10152\/revisions\/10157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10152"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=10152"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=10152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}