The bee fly is a great sign of spring these are great insects. Although they look a lot like a bee they are actually a species of fly. Flies only have one pair of functional wings where as bees have 2 pairs. Bee flies have a long proboscis which they use to get to nectar in long necked flowers. There are 9 species of bee fly in the UK and this one in the photo is the most common called the Large Bee-fly, Bombylius major. It is distinguishable by its strong dark mark across the front half of its wings.
Bee-flies have an interesting life history they parasitise solitary bees, wasps or beetles by laying their eggs into the entrance of a solitary bee, wasp or beetles burrow. The bee-fly larvae then eats (parasitises) the solitary bee, wasp or beetle larvae.
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