Webinar: Flies and Wasps (Great Southeast Pollinator Course, Week Six)
Webinar Date: July 21, 2026
Speakers: Dr. Jason Schmidt (University of Georgia, Tifton campus); Dr. Scott Clem (Illinois State University); Gabrielle LaTora (UGA Extension, Fulton County)
Series: Great Southeast Pollinator Course
Source: Corrected SRT (Stage 1), GTBOP_Transcript_2026-07-21_FliesAndWasps.srt (282 blocks); Archive Package (Stage 2) for structural reference
Audience note: Written for home gardeners, Master Gardener volunteers, and census counters. Every term, description, and relationship below comes from what the three speakers said in this session, nothing is drawn from field guides or outside sources.
Set: Three exercises. Exercise 1 has 6 pairs and 2 distractors, Exercise 2 has 8 pairs and 2 distractors, Exercise 3 has 10 pairs and 2 distractors.
Exercise 1: The Five Fly Groups, Plus Two Hoverfly Subfamilies
Timestamp Reference: 28:45 – 44:00 (primary coverage area)
Type: Item-to-Category
Instructions: Match each fly grouping in Column A with the description Dr. Clem gave for it in Column B. Two items in Column B will not be used.
| # | Column A | Column B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nematocera | a) The subfamily whose larvae feed on dead and decaying material, oftentimes in dead wood or water-filled tree holes; about 65% of hoverfly species | |
| 2 | Lower Brachycera | b) Larger flies with a long proboscis built for extracting nectar; bee flies, soldier flies, horse flies | |
| 3 | Calyptrates | c) The suborder that separates wasps from sawflies | |
| 4 | Acalyptrates | d) Mostly 1–5 mm flies with short mouthparts and no calypter; Clem called the group a “taxonomic trash bin” | |
| 5 | Syrphinae | e) Primitive flies with long slender bodies and multi-segmented antennae; mosquitoes, midges, march flies, crane flies | |
| 6 | Eristalinae | f) House flies, flesh flies, and blow flies, defined by the big white calypter under the wing | |
| g) The subfamily with predaceous larvae that eat aphids, the garden-variety syrphids | |||
| h) The family that contains almost all of our social wasps |
Answer Key:
1 → e, 2 → b, 3 → f, 4 → d, 5 → g, 6 → a
Distractors: c (Apocrita) and h (Vespidae) are both real terms from this session, but LaTora used them for wasps, not flies.
Source in transcript: Blocks 102–104 (Nematocera, 28:45–29:47); 114–117 (lower Brachycera, 31:52–33:17); 125–126 (calyptrates, 34:38–35:19); 137–139 (acalyptrates and the calypter, 37:37–38:39) plus block 145 (the 1–5 mm size range, 39:16–39:35); 151–155 (Syrphinae, 41:14–42:58); 156–158 (Eristalinae, 42:58–44:00). Distractor sources: blocks 197 (Apocrita) and 220 (Vespidae).
Exercise 2: Wasp Vocabulary
Timestamp Reference: 55:47 – 1:12:29 (primary coverage area)
Type: Term-to-Definition
Instructions: Match each term in Column A with Gabrielle LaTora’s definition in Column B. Two items in Column B will not be used.
| # | Column A | Column B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Petiole | a) The egg-laying organ only females have; in wasps it does dual action as the stinger | |
| 2 | Ovipositor | b) An insect that develops in or on a host insect, and the host dies in the process | |
| 3 | Apocrita | c) Division of labor in a nest among queens, workers, and a small number of males | |
| 4 | Vespidae | d) The constriction between the first and second abdominal segments, the wasp “waist” | |
| 5 | Caste system | e) The pollen-collecting basket on a bee’s hind leg | |
| 6 | Predator | f) A wasp that hunts other insects but does not eat them, carrying the prey back to feed its larvae | |
| 7 | Parasitoid | g) Sugary excrement from sap-feeding insects, a carbohydrate source adult wasps feed on | |
| 8 | Honeydew | h) The white structure under the wing that defines one major group of flies | |
| i) The suborder containing wasps, which separates them from the closely related sawflies | |||
| j) The family that includes almost all social wasps (a large, cosmopolitan group) |
Answer Key:
1 → d, 2 → a, 3 → i, 4 → j, 5 → c, 6 → f, 7 → b, 8 → g
Distractors: e (the scopa) and h (the calypter) are both terms from this session, but Clem used them for bees and flies, not wasps.
Source in transcript: Blocks 198–199 (petiole, 56:16–57:01); 205–207 (ovipositor, 58:56–1:00:01); 197 (Apocrita, 55:47–56:16); 220 (Vespidae, 1:02:18–1:02:45); 216–218 (caste system, 1:01:07–1:01:59); 234–237 (predators, 1:06:18–1:07:31); 238–239 (parasitoids and the 60–80% figure, 1:07:31–1:08:30); 248–252 (honeydew as “insect Red Bull,” 1:11:19–1:12:12). Distractor sources: blocks 70 (scopa) and 138 (calypter).
Exercise 3: Name the Insect
Timestamp Reference: 32:57 – 1:10:54 (primary coverage area)
Type: Species ID
Instructions: Match each fly or wasp in Column A with what the speakers said about it in Column B. Two items in Column B will not be used.
| # | Column A | Column B | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mydas fly | a) Solitary wasp that nests in empty plant cavities | |
| 2 | Tiger bee fly | b) The drone fly, an eristaline hoverfly that mimics honey bee drones | |
| 3 | Thick-headed fly | c) Big black fly up to an inch and a half long, out in July, looks like a massive black hornet | |
| 4 | Eristalis tenax | d) Parasitoid of tomato and tobacco hornworms; its larvae tunnel out and build a cluster of cocoons on the caterpillar | |
| 5 | Virginia giant hoverfly | e) An acalyptrate that waits on flowers, catches a bumblebee, and lays an egg on it | |
| 6 | Toxomerus marginatus | f) Solitary wasp that digs underground burrows | |
| 7 | Eupeodes americanus | g) A bee fly that parasitizes carpenter bees | |
| 8 | Cotesia congregata | h) Our largest hoverfly, about an inch long and loud in flight; also called the news fly | |
| 9 | Cicada killer | i) A nematoceran whose elongate blood-sucking mouthparts may have evolved from feeding on nectar in long tubular flowers | |
| 10 | Grass-carrying wasp | j) A small garden syrphid some people call a sweat bee because it feeds on the salt on your skin | |
| k) Builds mud pots and tubes that hang in the corner near the eaves of a house | |||
| l) A garden syrphid notably larger than Toxomerus and very abundant in the fall |
Answer Key:
1 → c, 2 → g, 3 → e, 4 → b, 5 → h, 6 → j, 7 → l, 8 → d, 9 → f, 10 → a
Distractors: i (the mosquito, whose blood-feeding mouthparts Clem suggested began as nectar-feeding structures) and k (the black and yellow mud dauber and organ pipe wasp) both appear in this session but match none of the Column A items.
Source in transcript: Blocks 117–119 (mydas fly, 32:57–33:25); 123–124 (tiger bee fly, 33:52–34:38); 140–144 (thick-headed fly, 38:39–39:16); 158 (Eristalis tenax, 43:44–44:00); 161–164 (Virginia giant, 44:09–44:43); 151–152 (Toxomerus marginatus and Eupeodes americanus, 41:14–41:56); 243–246 (Cotesia congregata, 1:09:19–1:10:54); 231 (cicada killer, 1:05:34–1:05:42); 233 (grass-carrying wasp, 1:06:00–1:06:18). Distractor sources: block 111 (mosquito mouthparts, 30:44–31:05); blocks 232–233 (mud dauber and organ pipe wasp, 1:05:41–1:06:00).
Verification
- Every Column A item and every Column B description traces to a specific block range in the corrected SRT, listed under each exercise.
- Each exercise carries two distractors. All six distractors are real content from this session placed in the wrong column, so elimination guessing does not work and no outside information is introduced.
- Ambiguity check: two candidate items were deliberately kept out of Exercise 3. Spilomyia longicornis was named on-air as a yellowjacket mimic (block 158), which would have collided with the Virginia giant hoverfly’s description. The rat-tailed maggot was rejected as a distractor because Clem introduces it as an eristaline larva (block 166) right after naming Eristalis tenax (block 158), so a student could defend matching the two. Every match now resolves to exactly one answer.
Moodle activities produced for UGA Center for Urban Agriculture / Great Southeast Pollinator Course · gsepc.org
Source: Corrected SRT (Stage 1), GTBOP_Transcript_2026-07-21_FliesAndWasps.srt (282 blocks); Archive Package (Stage 2)