''Criorhina berberina'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

hoverfly Hoverflies, also called flower flies or syrphids, 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 the l ...

. It is found in the

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

from Fennoscandia South to Iberia and Italy. Ireland eastwards through Europe into Turkey and European Russia . ''C. berberina'' is a bumblebee

mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

. The body has uniformly long dense pubescence, obscuring the ground-colour. There are two forms one with the pubescence more or less extensively blackish (typical ''berberina''), one in which it is entirely yellow or tawny (''berberina'' var. ''oxyacanthae'' Meigen). ''Criorhina'' differ from other bumblebee mimics - '' Mallota'', '' Arctophila'', '' Pocota'' and ''

Brachypalpus ''Brachypalpus'' is a genus of hoverflies, from the family Syrphidae, in the order Diptera. The head is triangular and produced well forwards and somewhat downwards. The thorax and abdomen with pile often rather long. The hind femur is swolle ...

'' by the form of their antennae: the first segments are thin and form a stalk, the third segment is shorter than it is wide. In ''Criorhina'', the face projects downwards, in contrast to ''Pocota'' and ''Brachypalpus''.

Larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e of ''C. berberina'' are associated with rotting deciduous wood. The larva is figured by Hartley (1961) and Rotheray (1993) Adults are arboreal and found in most categories of both coniferous and deciduous forest with overmature trees and are seen visiting flowers to feed. These include white umbellifers, ''Allium ursinum'', ''Cornus sanguinea'', ''Crataegus'', ''Euonymus'', ''Filipendula'', ''Frangula alnus'', ''Hypericum'', ''Lonicera xylosteum'', ''Photinia'', ''Ranunculus'', ''Rhamnus catharticus'', ''Rhododendron'', ''Rosa'', ''Rubus idaeus'', ''Salix'', ''Sorbus'', ''Taraxacum'' and ''Viburnum opulus''.de Buck, N. (1990) Bloembezoek en bestuivingsecologie van Zweefvliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) in het bijzonder voor België. ''Doc.Trav.'' IRSNB, no.60, 1–167. The flight period is May to July . ''C. berberina'' is a

bioindicator A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...

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Biolib
Diptera of Europe Milesiini Insects described in 1805 Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius {{Milesiini-stub