Bee Fly

[Erichalfbee]

First one of the year

 

[Wilco]

 

[Bettenham]

That's brilliant! I saw one the other day and couldn't work out what it was never having seen one.

 

[Erichalfbee]

That's brilliant! I saw one the other day and couldn't work out what it was never having seen one.

Quote from the Natural History Museum

Many bee-fly species are parasites of bees and wasps, but there are some that target beetles, grasshoppers, ants, moths or caterpillars.

Dr Erica McAlister, Senior Curator of Diptera at the Museum, explains how a dark-edged bee-fly lays her eggs in a solitary bee's nest and the unfortunate fate of the bee larvae when her eggs hatch:

'First the female moves her abdomen in a twerking motion to scoop up sand and gravel to coat the eggs. The sand protects and camouflages the eggs while also giving them extra weight.

'She then flies over to the solitary bee's nest and flicks out the eggs, hoping they will hatch near or in the nest.'

The dark-edged bee-fly's ovipositor (egg-laying tube) has a spine that allows her to flick her eggs, adds Erica.

'This helps her do something called bombing, where she fires off a row of eggs. She is essentially carpet-bombing her eggs, which she has to do while the bee is away from its nest.'

 

[pargyle]

That's brilliant! I saw one the other day and couldn't work out what it was never having seen one.

Yesv...never seen one in my garden until this week and I saw one on my overwinter broad beans that are in flower - I thought initially it was a bee looking for nectar on the flowers but then saw the long proboscis and the penny dropped on what it was.

 

[hemo]

Excellent pics and a nice sign of spring being sprung.
Great to see other insect varieties flitting about, though as we all are too aware there is one we don't want to be seeing.