Can someone help me ID this hornet thing please?

[Mattl]

I spotted this loitering around my hive a about 3 weeks ago or so a couple of days in a row. Anyway I managed to kill it and take a pic. I know its not an Asian hornet and assumed it was a euro hornet but all the pics on the net look different. Can someone help me ID it and tell me how they arrived at their conclusion (what markings give it away?).

It was a big old thing, that's it on the end of a saw. And it had huge eyes!

Thanks.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I spotted this loitering around my hive a about 3 weeks ago or so a couple of days in a row. Anyway I managed to kill it and take a pic. I know its not an Asian hornet and assumed it was a euro hornet but all the pics on the net look different. Can someone help me ID it and tell me how they arrived at their conclusion (what markings give it away?).

It was a big old thing, that's it on the end of a saw. And it had huge eyes!

Thanks.

Hornet Hover Fly Volucella zonaria


http://www.buglife.org.uk/discoverbugs/bugofthemonth/Hornet+Hoverfly

invador from europe, now spreading North, Brum is about as far north as it gets

 

[Mattl]

That's the bugger, thanks! So it couldn't sting me if it wanted to, i needn't have worried. lol

 

[Margaret Elisabeth]

Saw one in my garden in Sheffield this summer.

 

[Mattl]

It was definitely hanging around the hives, I saw it hovering around the front and then land near the entrance 3 days in a row. Very strange, but definitely a hornet hoverfly.

 

[Polyanwood]

What do they eat?

 

[Tom Bick]

http://www.buglife.org.uk/discoverbugs/bugofthemonth/Hornet+Hoverfly

 

[Lindylou]

Have also had a few in the garden this year.

 

[garlicpickle]

Adults are nectar feeders and the larvae live in wasp nests and feed on the debris at the bottom of the nest.

 

[Roola]

Adults are nectar feeders and the larvae live in wasp nests and feed on the debris at the bottom of the nest.

if only the larvae fed on the wasps themselves, it give them a knighthood

 

[user 3509]

Had one in our garden for the first time last week but ours was more orange than yellow.