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Hogweed hogs

Mike Dilger finds a spot packed with flowers and insects. Some spectacular aerial acrobats are the first to catch his eye - they are brightly coloured hoverflies. They look like bees or wasps, which is exactly what they want their would-be predators to think they are. There are 250 species of hoverfly in the UK but not all are wasp mimics. They are going mad for hogweed. Hogweed doesn't smell of pigs, it smells of dried cowpat. Mike finds tiny pollen-eating beetles which will pollinate it as they travel.

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Duration:

57 seconds