''Sericomyia'' (''Arctophila) superbiens'' is a

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

hoverfly Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while ...

. It is a bumblebee

mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

. Range: Scandinavia South to the Pyrenees. Ireland East through Northern Europe Central Europe and Southern Europe (Italy, Yugoslavia) into European Russia. South of northern France largely confined to mountain ranges. It is a bumblebee

. The habitat is ''Alnus'', ''Quercus'' and ''Betula'' with ''Salix'' woodland or coniferous (''Picea'') woodland or amongst ''Alnus'' and ''Salix''.Also found by springs, wet flushes and along streams in grassland. Flowers visited include white umbellifers, composites, ''Cirsium vulgare'', ''Centaurea'', ''Cirsium vulgare'', ''Ranunculus'', ''Rubus'', ''Scabiosa'', ''Succisa pratensis'', ''Mentha aquatica'', ''Sonchus''. de Buck, N. (1990) Bloembezoek en bestuivingsecologie van Zweefvliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) in het bijzonder voor België. ''Doc.Trav.'' IRSNB, no.60, 1-167. Flies in late summer and autumn (end July to October). The larva is probably aquatic and microphagous on debris in semi-liquid mud close to streams and springs.

References

Diptera of Europe Eristalinae Insects described in 1776 Taxa named by Otto Friedrich Müller {{Syrphidae-stub