matthewvosper 的日誌

So I've been having lots of fun with Volucella recently. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the East, and I haven't got a handle on most of them (yet), but I thought I could deal with the 11 species West of the Urals and produce something. So here is a little key, with some general info, some species info and some slightly iffy but 'characterful' mouse-drawn diagrams! I learned a fair bit doing it and hopefully it's worth sharing - do let me know of any errors/inaccuracies.

(Note: this is also the first time I've tried to use the journal function - let alone embed something, so let's see how this goes!)

The species covered are Volucella actica, bombylans (including forms bombylans, haemorrhoidalis and plumata), elegans, evecta, facialis, inanis, inflata, liquida, pellucens (ssp pelluscens), zonaria (ssp zonaria and beckeri), and there are comments on an undescribed species in North America.

So a tangent to a conversation on this observation https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/95937009 inspired me to do the following! Why not?

The species covered are Myathropa florea, M semenovi and M usta. There is also a note on 'Myathropa' flavovillosa which is also known as Eristalis or Mallota flavovillosa.