Bee Fly info

[amynaturally]

Hi
This morning we found this amazing strange creature in our conservatory. Thanks to this website and Google we discovered it is a bee fly. I have not been able to find any info about whether or not it stings!! I carefully put it back in the garden and with 4 small, slightly hysterical children I didn't hang around to look carefully for a stinger! I did, however, get a couple of fab pictures but not sure how to post them as the images 'exceed filesize limits'.

Can anyone answer this question?

Thanks
Amy

[Wild-Woman]

It is totally harmless. Its proboscis is there to take nectar onboard- not to sting.
They are lovely furry little insects, worth studying.

[Johnny81]

It wont sting, quite harmless. The larvae attack grubs of solitary bees and wasps in their nests. Our entomologists will give you much better information than I can. Try compressing your photos or resizing them, I usually re-size them to about 1230 pixels. Hope this helps.

[Hedera]

Amy, the beefly is a fly that looks like a bee but has no sting! You can assure your children. They are fun to watch as they hover over flowers and send out a long tongue to sip the nectar. They do chase off other insects and often butterflies but do no damage. They only have one pair of wings, whereas true bees have two pairs. The most common is the goldenbrown one, Bombylius major, with dark markings on its wings.

[amynaturally]

Here is the picture of our curious visitor. Thank you for the information and advice on uploading the picture. As I am a total novice when it comes to wildlife, it really was fascinating to see.

Amy

[Johnny81]

Yup definatley a Bee fly Bombylius major, fantastic creature and one I failed to photograph this year Welcome to WAB by the way.

[amynaturally]

Thanks John for the welcome

How common is the Bee Fly? Am I likely to find more of them in our garden? I am going to keep my eye out anyway

[htcdude]

I've never noticed them until this year, but I seem them often around my garden, so they're common here


Nige

[Wild-Woman]

Fairly common in gardens and a wide range of habitats. They're a good sign of spring and it's good to keep an eye out for them egg laying in leaf litter.
Watch out for them doing their rock-steady hovering over flowers. When over leaf litter, it's amazing to see the downward flow of air moving the leaves. Proper little helicopters they are.

[nightshade]

They are quite prolific here, the most interesting fact offered on WAB was that Male Bee Flies eyes are close together, Females eyes are wider apart.
Now what child could resist looking to see if a Bee Fly is male or female?