Volucella zonaria Insect Hover Fly Flower Fly Dipterus Brachycera Syrphid

Volucella zonaria cm 1.7-2 Insect Hover Fly Flower Fly Dipterus Brachycera Syrphid.
Family: Syrphidae.
Common name: The Hornet Mimic Hoverfly.
Syn. Conops zonaria, Conops bifasciatus, Musca valentina, Syrphus bifasciatus, Volucella beckeri, Volucella fasciata, Volucella radicum.

Classic example of "Batesian mimicry", which is a harmless Hoverfly that mimics a wasp or a dangerous Cleridae beetle with bright colors similar to signal flavors or odors.

Volucella is a kind of insect belonging to Syrphidae family  and includes some of the greatest our flies. The adult, assiduous visitors of flowers, have a distinct faneric aposematic Batesian mimicry with different social imenopters, in whose nests the larvae of Volucella develop at the expense of debris and food leftovers, but sometimes also of the brood: so Volucella bombylans , rough and woolly, also resembles the color of the Bombus near them it lives; Volunella inanis, guest of the nests of hornet is hairless and banded with yellow and reddish brown or blackish like Vespa crabro same; etc. Other exotic species, shades of black, blue or purple metallic, live differently saprophagous.