Bee Hoverfly for ID - is this an unusual one ?

[exo]

Found a bee-hoverfly indoors looking a bit down & slow,
took it outside & took some photos while it was drinking (loads of) sucrose.
After which it flew off strongly

Tracked a similar looking image in an older thread on this forum:
Volucella bombylans?
also seen an image on flicker

Is this one I saw a 'Pocota personata' ?

[Geoff F]

I would like a second opinion on this fly; but that small head does indeed look like Pocota personata.

[eucera]

These are Pocota. Roger Morris will be on to you for details of this!

[exo]

Great news!, thanks for the info.

I'd sort of convinced myself after looking at dozens of images of
Volucella bombylans colour variants & the few Pocota personata I could find.

There was only one by the way,
by details, you mean location, time etc?

[Geoff F]

You will find a lot of information about recording hoverfly sightings here

Hoverfly Recording Scheme - View Forum - Submit records

[exo]

Thanks for the link, interesting.
The submission process for sightings looks quite involved,
not sure they'd be interested in just one ?

[Jason Green]

Evening Exo, and welcome to WAB!

I'm sure they would, particularly personata!

Take care,

Jason

[exo]

Thanks, certainly lots of interesting things going on in here.

OK, I'll give the sighting submission on that site a go,
as soon as I can figure out the answers to some of the slightly odder questions.

Should I wait for Roger Morris before doing that?

[b0mbus]

This is Bombus hypnorum isn't it? The long thin face gives it away, doesn't it? I'm happy to be corrected if wrong, but this looks just like the garden bumblebee. It has the longest tongue of all our native bumblebees, usually feeds on red clover and honeysuckle.

Edit: I've just noticed it has no antennae and no pollen baskets. A good mimic it is .

[Jason Green]

Hi b0mbus,

Note the lack of a pollen-basket on the hind leg and dark median wing-stripe.

I must admit, this must be one of the best bee-mimics out there