Bee, wasp and hornet mimics share your photos here

 Saturday 25th March 2023 

Orchard 

Theres was 2 of them it flew onto some wood with another drone fly  here’s the 2nd drone fly.  this too is a drone fly but this one is called the Tapered Drone fly and this one was the one that deceived me by acting like a bee the most more effectively than the other drone fly.

Common drone fly left.  The Bigger longer one is the Tapered drone fly 

Regards

Kathy and Dave

I saw  one (Last year)  2022 aswell

common drone fly (close up) 

Hornet mimic hover fly

scientific name Volucella zonaria

Common drone fly 

feeding on pollen and nector 

I walked right up to it then zoomed in close up 

They mimic honey bee drones 

size not close up but through binoculars 

I walked right up to the common drone fly and it still let me take photos 

so I didn’t use binoculars or anything just zoomed in for the one in the previous post of this drone fly and this photo 

Its a very good mimic but if you look closely even though there good at looking or behaving like a bee in this case a honey bee cause that the subject they evolved to mimic if you look closely  you can tell there not honey bees. One of The easy est times to look and take close photos can be when there resting sometimes rather than flying around but when there still you can tell they don’t look exactly the same as honey bees cause even though there good mimics that pollinate flowers there flys not honey bees 

Now this might interest some people too

I don’t know if you have seen this type of hoverfly before but it’s a different type of Hoverfly It’s called 

Heineken fly Scientific name: Rhingia campestris

it uses its long snout to get into deep flowers and places where most Hoverflys cant. And its an important pollinator for most plants