Bug FAQPainted Wood Fly
Blera pictipes · Order: Diptera · Family: Syrphidae
The painted wood fly is about 9 to 10 mm long (0.35 to 0.39 in). Adults have a shiny green-black head with yellow hair on the upper two-thirds and a black abdomen marked with distinctive yellow spots; the lower part of the head is honey-yellow or whitish-yellow. They are found across the eastern and central United States, where adults visit flowers for nectar and pollen and the rat-tailed larvae develop in tree sap or rot holes.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The female’s front is narrowed above, shiny greenish-black on the upper two-thirds with wholly yellow hair, while the lower front is honey-yellow or whitish-yellow. The abdomen is shiny black with variable but distinctive yellow markings.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Adults are commonly seen on flowers, feeding on nectar and pollen. Larvae are rat-tailed and live in exuding sap or rot holes of trees.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults obtain energy from flower nectar and protein from pollen. Larvae feed on tree sap or the organic material in tree rot holes.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
Blera pictipes is a rare syrphid fly first described by Bigot in 1883, distinguishing it from more common hoverflies.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 21 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Maryland, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama, New York, Ohio.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What does a painted wood fly look like?
The female has a narrowed front that is shiny green-black on the upper two-thirds with yellow hair, a honey-yellow lower front, and a black abdomen with distinctive yellow markings.
Source: Wikipedia
What do painted wood flies eat?
Adults feed on flower nectar and pollen, while the larvae feed on tree sap or material in rot holes.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Syrphidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blera_pictipes
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-28 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-28.