---

Hello,

when I first saw this furry fly today at a forest path (northwest Germany), I thought it was a bumblebee, more precisely Bombus pratorum. But only the males of this species are so furry, and they aren't there, yet. On closer looking I saw, it was a large fly, but none of the bumblebee mimicking Syrphidae.
I think, this must be an Oestrid, possibly Cephenemyia stimulator.

Fittingly I also saw some roe deers at the same time and place in the forest...

---

Pic #2

---

Hi Juergen , vey nice indeed, but it is a Syrphid:

Mallota fuciformis.

Excellent find !

( Cephenemyia are strictly summer species)


Theo

---

Hello Theo,

thank you!

Now it makes sense, that the fly moved into the gap in the tree. Maybe there was a sap flow. I already wondered about this, but did not find an explanation.

---

You actually observed that ? Great !

The larvae live in rotholes (not sap flows)

Greetings

Theo

---

Not really. The hole was too dark to see anything from the distance. When I climbed the slope to get to it, the fly came flown out of it and was gone...