NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

We were in the garden a couple of days ago when Katrina suddenly backed away from me (I cannot blame her) and exclaimed "I don't like the look of that!" She had just seen this... I was able to immediately put her at rest by telling her that it didn't sting, although it was very big and looked like a hornet - it was, in fact a hoverfly - Volucella zonaria , a hornet mimic. They are magnificent insects and illustrate how varied the hoverflies are, with some in comparison being tiny wisps of things. I've recorded two other Volucella in the garden, both large, arresting and most probably responsible for many a sudden panic in back gardens up and down the country.. Volucella pellucens Volucella inanis

This is another one of the big, easy to do hoverflies - Volucella inanis . (Not as easy to do as I blithely claimed. Andrew Cunningham has quite rightly pointed out that this is V. zonaria) It barged it's way past all of the puny flies, wasps and beetles to land on some ivy and show off its awesome build. They really are spectacular these large hoverflies. If only they were all as easy to identify - but there again there wouldn't be any challenge, would there?