Bee Fly

Description:

The adult flies have a hairy body with long hairy legs and a characteristically long, slender tongue which they use for nectar retrieval whilst hovering beside a flower head.

Habitat:

This Bee Fly was hovering above the path through a small, sunny clearing.

Notes:

Bee flies do not sting or bite and are completely harmless to humans and pets. The conspicous needle-like proboscis is adapted for sucking flower nectar. Many bee flies hover in midair while doing their nectaring, undoubtedly to avoid capture by insects or spiders lurking about flower blooms, looking for an easy meal, e.g. ambush bugs and crab spiders. I most often see bee flies around flowers, or if resting, usually on the ground on bare soil. They are extremely wary and difficult to approach. No doubt their large compound eyes give them good vision, plus they have that air-motion sensing mechanism that helps the ordinary house fly avoid the swatter. Adult bee flies drink nectar, but the larvae are parasites of beetle larvae as well as the brood of solitary wasps and bees, the hole or burrow-nesting insects.