Hornet Hoverfly
| Hornet Hoverfly | ||||||||||||
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Hornet Hover Fly ( Volucella zonaria ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Volucella zonaria | ||||||||||||
| ( Poda , 1761) |
The hornet hover fly ( Volucella zonaria ), also known as the large forest hover fly or giant bumblebee hover fly , is a fly from the family of hover flies (Syrphidae). Their appearance is similar to that of hornets . This offers protection against predators ( mimicry ).
features
The flies reach a body length of 16 to 22 millimeters and are therefore relatively large for Central European hoverflies. The face, the forehead and the antennae are colored yellow, the rust-red compound eyes are dense and have short hairs. The compound eyes of the males are very close together so that the forehead is very narrow. The mesonotum is shiny red-brown, the label is yellow-brown in color. The red and yellow abdomen has two wide black bands. This distinguishes the species from the similar banded forest hover fly ( Volucella inanis ), which is similarly colored, but has three black bands on the abdomen. The first abdominal segment is black. The wings are colored red-brown. They move with a high wing beat frequency, up to 300 Hertz (hovering flight). This allows the insects to “float” in place for a long time.
Occurrence
Hornet hoverflies occur in Europe and Asia to western Siberia and North Africa . They live on meadows near forests and fly in Central Europe mostly from June to September. The adults suck nectar from various flowering plants, such as valerian , oregano , horse mint , scabies , dogwood , or privet . Their larvae develop in the nests of wasps and hornets and eat detritus there .
Larvae
The larvae of Volucella life after hatching as a commensal in waste piles of wasps - hornets - or bumblebee nests. They feed on dead and dying insects. Thus the larva performs a kind of "hygienic function" by eliminating carcasses in a wasp's nest. The larvae themselves are about 20 mm long. Presumably for camouflage, the yellow-white color is covered by adherence of soil particles to the larva.
The larva itself pupates in the ground, where it hibernates as a pupa. In spring, around the beginning of May, a new generation of hornet hoverflies hatches.
literature
- O. Bastian: Hoverflies. (= Neue Brehm-Bücherei. Volume 576). Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1986, ISBN 3-7403-0015-9 .
- G. Bothe: Hoverflies. German Youth Association for Nature Observation, Hamburg 1996.
- G. Röder (1990): Biology of hoverflies in Germany: (Diptera: Syrphidae), Bauer Verlag, 575 pages.
- U. Schmid: On glass wings - hoverflies. (= Stuttgart contributions to natural history. Series C, No. 40). State Museum for Natural History Stuttgart, 1996, DNB 950223093 .
