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Volucella inanis

Species of fly

Volucella inanis
Summary

Species of fly

  • Musca inanis Linnaeus, 1758
  • Musca annulata Harris, 1776
  • Volucella annulata (Harris, 1776)
female

Volucella inanis is a species of hoverfly belonging to the family Syrphidae.

Distribution

This species is present in most of Europe, in eastern Palearctic realm, in the Near East and in North Africa.

Description

The adults reach 15 - long. They have three yellow bands on an otherwise black abdomen and thus closely resemble wasps in a form of mimicry. The first two bands are completely or partially interrupted by a black wedge. The head has feather-like antennae and the wings have darkened patches in the middle and on the tip.

Biology

Volucella inanis can be encountered from early July to early September, feeding on flowers of species such as yarrow (Achillea millefolium), dill (Anethum graveolens), heather (Erica species), thistles (genera Carduus, Cirsium, and Onopordum) and Buddleja davidii.

The female lays eggs in the nests of social wasps and hornets (Vespa crabro, Vespula germanica, etc.). The larvae of this hoverfly are ectoparasites of larvae of the wasps.

References

References

  1. (1983). "British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide". British Entomological and Natural History Society.
  2. [https://fauna-eu.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/ac65e27e-5501-4b7f-8a27-2da791d4d8ce Fauna Europaea]
  3. "Hoverfly".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

diptera-of-africa diptera-of-asia diptera-of-europe volucella insects-described-in-1758 animal-taxa-named-by-carl-linnaeus
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