Pellucid Hoverfly Volucella pellucens

The Bee-mimic Volucella pellucens, also called the Pellucid Hoverfly, is another of the large Volucella (Valpollicella) hoverflies. It has a distinctive white band around its middle, flanked by a shiny black thorax and lower abdomen. Eggs are laid in nests of social wasps, where the hoverfly larvae feed on nest debris including waste food and dead adult or larvae wasps.

This is Biggles in his World War I flying helmet. He spends hours hovering in the sky, darting back and forth.

Another, rarer, giant Volucella hoverfly looks similar to this one - Volucella inflata (rounded "inflated" body) has a yellow instead of white midriff (no picture yet). The smaller hoverfly Leucozona lucorum, another Bumblebee mimic, also has a white midriff and black rump (with some white hairs), with black patches on its wing, but it has a brown/ginger thorax (and scutellum), no rust colour on the wing and longer antennae.