Yellow-girdled Dasysyrphus Dasysyrphus tricinctus

The Yellow-girdled Dasysyrphus is a wasp mimic with lemon yellow bands on black. Despite its scientific name of tricinctus meaning three belts, sometimes only two are visible and sometimes four can be seen (including two thin ones on the rear). It also has a couple of small yellow spots at the top of the abdomen and black stigma on the wing leading edges.

Its native range is across northern Eurasia, but mainly around UK and Scandinavia/West Russia. It usually has two generations a year, one in early summer and one in late summer. It particularly likes to visit yellow flowers but can also be found on white and purple. Larvae eat sawfly and moth caterpillars.