Look like a bee but it's a Drone Fly (another species of Hover flies)

Coleostephus myconis with/com Eristalis tenax

Carnaxide/Portugal (3/03/2024)

[Nikon Coolpix P900; 135mm; 1/800s; F7,1; 100 ISO]

Eristalis tenax, the common drone fly. In German it is called "Mistbiene" which means dung bee. An unexpected guest on January 18. It's winter here.

Eristalis tenax on Prunus mume 'Kobai' / Common Drone Fly on 'Kobai' Japanese Plum Blossom at the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC

Drone Fly .. [2 / 2]

Female Eristalis tenax busy pollinating. Brooklyn, New York City, NY.

Movie component of a livephoto. It was a windy day, and the insect was truly buzzing around. You can see just how difficult it was to capture anything at all, see contemporaneous still photo previous, which is practically miraculous in how sharp it turned out.

Some insects from last week, Trichius fasciatus, Oxythyrea funesta, Trichodes apiarius var. interruptus, Apis mellifera and Eristalis tenax?

Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax)

Family: Hoverfly Family (Syrphidae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern

Present and abundant on every continent except Antarctica, the Common Drone Fly is one of several hoverfly species that exhibit Batesian mimicry (a form of mimicry in which a harmless species has evolved to mimic the appearance of a toxic or otherwise dangerous species,) with its fluffy body and yellow-and-black striped abdomen giving it a bee-like appearance that deters most would-be predators despite lacking any real defensive abilities itself - upon closer inspection, it can be easily distinguished from a true bee owing to its thick body (bees have a narrow "waist" between their thorax and abdomen,) short, stubby antennae (bees generally have longer, flexible antennae) and wings (bees have 4 overlapping wings, while flies have only two wings.) Feeding on nectar and pollen, males of this species claim small flower-filled areas as their territories and guard them fiercely, hovering in mid-air to survey their surroundings and chasing off any similarly-sized insects that come close. Females travel between these territories searching for food and mates, and after mating they lay clutches of sticky oval-shaped eggs near bodies of water; the larvae, known as rat-tailed maggots, are aquatic and feed on detritus and bacteria, breathing air through an extremely long tail-like structure that extends from their abdomen. After reaching a suitable size and age the larvae crawl onto land and pupate in sheltered areas, and upon reaching adulthood they may live for several years, hibernating in rocky cracks or rotting wood to survive the winter.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/55719-Eristalis-tenax

Common Drone Fly, Eristalis tenax

Common drone fly (Eristalis tenax) on Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)

My pool now has Eristalis tenax larvae in it!!!!

Yippie!!!!

What a wonderful find!!!!! Eristalis tenax, the common drone fly, and one of the largest & most wide-spread bee mimic syrphid flies globally. Seen resting on an ornamental bush, and posing very nicely for me to take its photo. My iNaturalist 📸: Nikon COOLPIX L820

happy first day of april, here are some wasps and bees. you don't want to prey on them because they have powerful defenses and you're very scared (Scaeva pyrastri, Chryosotoxum sp., Eristalis tenax, Megalodontes capitulatus)

Honey bee mimic hoverfly -  Potenially Eristalis tenax/pertinax                   

Eristalis tenax, the common drone fly

Eristalis tenax on Prunus mume 'Kobai' / Common Drone Fly on 'Kobai' Japanese Plum Blossom at the Coker Arboretum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC

Drone Fly .. [1 / 2]

Female Eristalis tenax busy pollinating. Brooklyn, New York City, NY.

Still of a livephoto. It was a windy day, and the insect was truly buzzing around. To see just how difficult it was to capture anything at all, see contemporaneous video next.