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Photo#1451552
Fly species ? - Eristalis stipator

Fly species ? - Eristalis stipator
Fair Oaks, Sacramento County, California, USA
October 5, 2017
Size: Honey Bee size
I observed this Honey Bee sized fly visiting flowers but unlike the Honey Bees that visit the flowers very briefly landing, this one stayed somewhat longer. At least long enough to allow me to get 2 images of it. I'm calling this a fly rather than a bee because of mainly the head which is fly-like instead of bee-like although the thorax is bee-like. The abdomen is similar to a bee but has black bands rather than golden like a bee would have. There does appear to be pollen sacs on the top side of both the thorax and the abdomen near the wing bases.

Moved

Eristalis stipator ..... fema
Eristalis stipator ..... female

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

ID…
Your observation narrative is impeccable! With that documentation, I concur & surmise to check the "Beefly", in particular the…
Villa hottentotta species.
http://www.pbase.com/image/101248038

 
Bee Fly
This is an image of mine here on BugGuide.Net which I took in Mono County, CA that was called a Bee Fly:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/1442497

John Ascher on 10/06/2017 provided a potential ID for my image as Eristalis Subgenus Eoseristalis.

In my image, although it appears to have field characteristics that resembles a bee, it is obviously more closely related to a fly rather than a bee. Note on the abdomen that there are 4 black segments with lighter rings separating the segments whereas with a bee there are more body segments than in a fly.

Eristalis Subgenus Eoseristalis
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