Syrphid Fly, Family Syrphidae

O.k., thank you, appreciate it !

Drone fly larvae are aquatic and live usually in stagnant, contaminated water (called Rat-tailed Maggots). I'll hop over to your other spotting and take a closer look at it.

Thanks again for your kind comment. Yes it does very much look like the Eristalis tenax :-) , thanks for the links ... very interesting, striking similarity, ( although striking maybe not the right term in this case ). They are real acrobats and very easy going, and have great patience while I am picturing them :-), contrary to the bumble bee. Didn't know these Eristalis tenax were imported in the USA by the way ... funny to read that. By the way, and you've been a great help sofar .... did you perhaps take a look at the larvae and pupa I posted pictures of in the "unknown" box? Do you perhaps know if the pupa possibly could be a bee like species as the Eristalis tenax (Drone Fly)? If so I'll try to isolate them from a huge army of ants that came marching in the flower container yesterday.
I'll publish some pictures I like of the Simosyrphus grandicornis, they're also great fun :-).

Seth, your beautiful fly looks remarkably like Eristalis tenax (Drone Fly).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eristalis_t...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/7183 (North American reference but for the same species)

We have them here in the US as well (introduced from Europe). I love Syrphids very much as well. I like them more and more as I find new species.

We are glad to have you, well prepared or not! :-)

Thank you very much LE, my participation with this lovely site was a bit unexpected so I came somewhat badly prepared, but I will publish some more of my favorite pictures of these remarkable creaturies in the near future :-).

welcome to PN seth and a lovely photo!

Hi Forest Dragon, thanks on both comments :-). I guess this "Bee" title was a bit of wishfull thinking hihi, should have been "pretending to be bee" then :-). There are a lot of those around here during the summer, center of the city, but I've never seen them actually hoover like Simosyrphus grandicornis does? Your designation of the species is absolute helpfull, thank you very much, I thereby am able to distinguish Simosyrphus grandicornis, of which I see most of here ... as the first ones have showed themself yesterday after a long and cold period ... hoovering, I like them very much :-) ... thanks again!

Bye the way...Welcome to Project Noah!

Hi Seth, beautiful series!

This is actually not a Bee at all but a Fly! It's a species of Syrphid Fly, Family Syrphidae. They are also called Hoverflies or Flower Flies (it depends on where you live). Many to most of them are bee and wasp mimics. Some even buzz similarly, however, they have no ability to bite or sting.

I am not familiar with the species in your area. Here is the Wikipedia page for Syrphidae:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoverfly

Hope this helps!