Volucella bombylans (Linnaeus, 1758)

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Identification

Identification difficulty = 1. according to Ball & Morris, 2024¹

Biology

The larva is a scavenger and a predator in nests of bumblebees, where they probably feed on larvae and pupae. The adults are convincing bumblebee mimics, occurring in two main colour forms, one of which mimics red-tailed, the other white-tailed bumblebees. They are often found visiting flowers or resting on sunny vegetation along woodland edges, rides and glades, mature hedgerows or in scrub. This species occurs rather earlier in the season than other members of the genus.

Flight period

The following plots show the number of unique records per week excluding those reported to be of immature stages.

Distribution

Widespread and common throughout Britain, including a number of Scottish islands.

Trends

The following plots show the Frescalo TFactor vs year and a map of the rescaled frequency (all records) for the species.