What Is This Insect?

[Vroom101]

I was in my garden this morning and noticed a flying insect collecting nectar. I'd never seen anything like it before. The body was about an inch long and quite fat. The tail was black and white and it had a yellow face. At first I thought it was some sort of butterfly or moth, but as I got closer I saw that the wings weren't like either - more like a bee's wings. It was silent (no buzzing) and moved like a humming bird. It flew off after a few seconds and it doubted I'd ever see it again. However when I went out to my car, it was sitting on my bonnet! I managed to capture a quick snap on my phone before it flew off again. It's not the best quality, but can anyone help identify it?

[Johnnytheboy]

Hornet?

[ATG]

Some type of hoverfly.

How about:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/servlet/JiveServle...

Edited by ATG on Friday 14th August 11:19

[Vroom101]

ATG said:

Some type of hoverfly.

How about:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/servlet/JiveServle...

Edited by ATG on Friday 14th August 11:19

It hovered like a hoverfly (it actually moved more like a humming bird), but wasn't like anything I've seen before. It was also completely silent. A friend of mine suggested something called a Turkish Donkey Bee, but I've never heard of one of them and can't find anything online. I've seen Hornets before, and this didn't look like any hornet I've seen before.

[baker77]

Could it have been a hummingbird moth? My husband saw one of these last week, he said it flew just like a hummingbird and was sucking nectar from our geraniums.

[Foliage]

http://entomology.tamu.edu/insectquestions/

[crossy67]

We get loads of hummingbird moths here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird_hawk-mot...

Autoglass swapped your windscreen too I see.

[Timmy40]

Looks like a hornet to me, or one of those psychopathic hornet like wasps that have come over from Europe.

[ATG]

Vroom101 said:

It hovered like a hoverfly (it actually moved more like a humming bird), but wasn't like anything I've seen before. It was also completely silent. A friend of mine suggested something called a Turkish Donkey Bee, but I've never heard of one of them and can't find anything online. I've seen Hornets before, and this didn't look like any hornet I've seen before.

I'm no expert, but "looks like a bee/wasp/bumble bee/hornet but with slightly unusual colours and silent flight" sounds an awful lot like a hoverfly. We had some huge buggers flying around that looked very very similar to bumble bees but were almost silent.

[Nightmare]

You describe a hummingbird hawk moth almost perfectly but it isn't from the wing description and that (fecking terrible!) pic......I'm pretty certain that's Volucella zonaria - the hornet hoverfly . Very big and matches your description perfectly...including the silent flying.

[Vroom101]

Nightmare said:

You describe a hummingbird hawk moth almost perfectly but it isn't from the wing description and that (fecking terrible!) pic......I'm pretty certain that's Volucella zonaria - the hornet hoverfly . Very big and matches your description perfectly...including the silent flying.

Yes, sorry for the photo quality. It was the best I could manage before it buggered off

I googled the Volucella Zonaria, and by Jove I think you've cracked it! Thank you I wish it had stayed around longer - it was fascinating to watch. I'll keep an eye out for it in the future.