WELL, NEVER SEEN ONE LIKE THIS BEFORE!

I was intending to post a photograph of Mr. HCB when I crept up on him in the garden today as he was sorting out some very tall plants, but then this little insect settled on my trousers and I freaked!  It was very persistent and kept coming back to settle on me, despite me shooing it off.

It then decided that I wasn’t fair game, so flew towards Mr. HCB, so I shouted to him to be careful because this was on its way.  It settled on his jeans, so I then told him to keep still so that I could take some photographs - I know, I know, the fickleness of a woman, but I wanted to try and identify it.

I thought at first it was an Asian hornet - horror of horrors - and in our garden - but when I started to do some research, Mr. Google told me otherwise.

Apparently, it is a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly or to give it its technical name, Volucella Zonaria.  They are apparently, the largest hoverfly species in Britain, and can reach 2 centimetres in length.  They are also known as belted overflies and are covered in a light and dark striped pattern that makes them look similar to a hornet to help defend them against predators while it searches for nectar, its main source of food.

The blurb also said that they are completely harmless, but they don’t look it, do they?  These particular hoverflies can be distinguished from hornets from their much larger eyes and lack of a sting.  They only have one pair of wings, rather than two like wasps and hornets, so if you see one in your garden, you will know what it is. 

I still wasn’t that keen on it being anywhere near me and I guess it must have known that, because it kept coming towards me, but I was happy to get a decent shot and will make this my offering for Wild Wednesday.

“If we were to wipe out insects alone 
     on this planet, 
          the rest of life and humanity with it 
               would mostly disappear from the land. 
Within a few months.”
E. O. Wilson - American Naturalist