---
title: "Gewone pendelvlieg"
description: "Helophilus pendulus — Insecten en spinnen. Helophilus pendulus is a European hoverfly."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/sun-fly
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Gewone pendelvlieg

> Helophilus pendulus — Insecten en spinnen. Helophilus pendulus is a European hoverfly.

- Scientific name: *Helophilus pendulus*
- Category: `insects` (Insecten en spinnen)
- Habitats: `freshwater` (Meren en rivieren)
- iNaturalist observations: 28073
- Wikidata: [Q2697439](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2697439)
- iNaturalist taxon: [52486](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/52486)

## Names

- en: Sun Fly
- de: Gemeine Sumpfschwebfliege
- fr: Hélophile suspendu
- nl: Gewone pendelvlieg

## Countries with the most observations

GB (10137), DE (2967), DK (2244), FR (2114), NL (1587), RU (1460), FI (1326), PL (709), BE (548), SE (520), AT (499), IT (367)

## Summary

Helophilus pendulus is a European hoverfly. Its scientific name means "Dangling marsh-lover" (from Greek helo-, "marsh", -phil, "love", Latin pend-, "hang"). It is a very common species in Britain, where it is the commonest Helophilus species. It is found throughout Europe from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, westward to the Faroe Islands and Iceland, and through eastward through Russia from the Kola Peninsula south to Crimea and across Siberia to the Pacific Ocean.
It also has the common name sun fly, although this is probably based on a mis-reading of helo- as helio-.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helophilus_pendulus

## Photo

![Gewone pendelvlieg](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/sun-fly/medium.jpg)

Photo: Gregory Wheeler · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/382087206

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/sun-fly?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).