Adults may reach about 20–25 mm, making this one of Europe’s largest hoverflies.
Fine-art photographic collection
Volucella zonaria
A harmless giant hoverfly that enters active wasp nests and raises its larvae among the debris beneath the combs.
About this species
Hornet Mimic Hoverfly
Volucella zonaria(Poda, 1761)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Volucella zonaria is a large hornet-mimicking hoverfly. Adults visit flowers, while females place eggs in nests of social wasps or hornets, where the larvae live among nest debris and later leave to pupate.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Syrphidae · Volucella
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe, North Africa and temperate AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia
Parks, gardens, woodland edges and urban flower-rich habitats near social-wasp nests.
Adults fly mainly in summer and visit flowers in warm sunshine.
Adults take nectar and pollen; larvae consume organic debris and dead material inside social-wasp nests.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
At more than two centimetres long it can resemble a European hornet in colour, size, sound and flight, yet it has no sting and only one pair of wings.
The female enters an active wasp or hornet nest to lay, and the larvae develop amid nest debris beneath or around the combs.
Once rare in Britain, it expanded dramatically from southern England into towns far to the north, closely tracking the warmest regions and milder winters.
More photographs
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