Pellucid fly
The pellucid fly is a big hoverfly with a shiny black body and a wide, creamy white band across its tummy. From far away it looks a bit like a bee or wasp, which helps keep birds away. It hovers at about the height of your head in woods and gardens.
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Fun facts
The mother sneaks right into wasp nests to lay her eggs, and the wasps do not seem to notice her.
Its larvae live at the bottom of the wasp nest and clean up dead wasps and food scraps.
Its see-through wings have an amber front edge and a brown patch.
You can tell it is a fly and not a bee: flies have two wings, while bees and wasps have four.
It is one of the biggest hoverflies in Britain.
Most asked questions about Pellucid fly
?Is the pellucid fly a wasp?
No. It is a hoverfly that only looks a little like a wasp. It has two wings and no sting.
?Does the pellucid fly sting?
No. Hoverflies cannot sting at all.
?What does the pellucid fly eat?
The grown-ups eat nectar and pollen. The larvae eat scraps inside wasp nests.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Volucella pellucens
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Volucella pellucens (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sandy Rae. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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