Andy Sands / Downland bee-fly (Villa cingulata) female, this rare southern species is usually seen on calcareous grassland in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, England, UK, June

Andy Sands / Downland bee-fly (Villa cingulata) female, this rare southern species is usually seen on calcareous grassland in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, England, UK, June

Andy Sands / Downland bee-fly (Villa cingulata) male, this rare southern species is usually seen on calcareous grassland in the Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, England, UK, June

Nick Upton / Downland villa bee fly (Villa cingulata) feeding on Common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) flowers, Wiltshire, UK, July, Locally Endangered species.

Andy Sands / Downland villa, Downland bee-fly (Villa cingulata) - this rare southern species of bee-fly is listed as endangered in the Red Data Book but has recently increased in range and is usually seen on calca...

Andy Sands / Downland bee-fly (Villa cingulata) male and female together. This rare southern species of bee-fly is listed as endangered in the Red Data Book but has recently increased in range and usually seen on...

Nick Upton / Downland villa bee fly (Villa cingulata) a Red data book endangered species feeding on Common hogweed flowers (Heracleum sphondylium) in a chalk grassland meadow, Wiltshire, UK, June.

Nick Upton / Downland villa bee fly (Villa cingulata) filling her sand chamber at the entrance to a rabbit burrow to coat her eggs in sand, chalk grassland slope, near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK, June.

Nick Upton / Downland villa bee fly (Villa cingulata) rubbing the tip of her abdomen in loose soil by a rabbit burrow to fill her sand chamber, where eggs are coated in sand, chalk grassland slope, near Bradford o...