Volucella inflata is a large species of European hoverfly.

The abdomen is largely black, with the exception of dark orange brown patches on the second tergite.

[2] It is found mostly in deciduous forests with mature trees, though has been known to venture into domestic gardens.

Adults fly from May to July and feed on nectar from flowers, mostly from umbellifers.

[2] This fly is very local over much of Europe, being found from Sweden and northern Germany, the Pyrenees and northern Spain, Britain, eastwards through Central Europe into European Russia and the Caucasus, and the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.