My first bee-fly of the year 🥳 and also the most intimate I have ever been with one 🔥🫶🧸 He was lurking by a host colony of Yellow-legged Mining Bees, hoping for a mate. West Sussex TQ177167
#beeflywatch #bombyliusmajor #bugsky @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
A male Dark-edged Bee-fly feeding from a grape hyacinth flower. He is a large fly with a rounded body covered in mid-brown hair, and a hairy face. He has long, thin legs and a very long proboscis, which he holds out in front like a narwhal's tusk. He has brown eyes, which meet each other on top of his head, and his wings have a dark, scalloped mark along the leading edge.
My first Dark-edged Bee-fly of the year, a week earlier than last year's.
@uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
#insects #invertebrates #Bombyliusmajor #DarkEdgedBeeFly #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #InsectThursday #beeflywatch
Dark-edged Bee-fly #bombyliusmajor on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path
A copulating pair of Dark-edged Bee-flies. These are ovate flies, covered with mid-brown hair. They have long, spindly legs and a long, narrow probscis that is permanently extended. The front half of their wings has a dark, scalloped marking. The female is bigger than the male. Her eyes are separated, while his meet on the top of his head.
Dark-edged Bee-flies in cop. Is #FornicationFriday a thing here?
#insects #invertebrates #fly #BeeFly #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #BugSex #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
A Dark-edged Bee-fly feeding from the blossom of a blackthorn hedge. This is a medium sized fly, covered with yellowy-brown hair. It has spindly legs, and a long, straight proboscis. Its wings have dark markings along their leading edges. Females lay their eggs in the nests of mining bees.
A Dotted Bee-fly feeding from a pink pulmonaria flower. This is a medium sized fly, a little bigger than a Dark-edged Bee-fly, with chestnut hair over most of its thorax and abdomen, and a black abdominal apex. It has spindly legs, and a long, straight proboscis. Its wings have a dark fore edge, and are marked with black spots. Females lay their eggs in the nests of mining bees.
Blossom time:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/335459...
#insects #invertebrates #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #DottedBeeFly #BombyliusDiscolor #BeeFlyWatch #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders #InsectThursday
Marvellous mother Dark-edged Bee-fly collecting soil to add ballast to her eggs before firing them with well-aimed butt-flicks at Yellow-legged Mining Bee nest holes. #parentingstyles #happymothersday #bombyliusmajor #andrenaflavipes #bugsky @flygirlnhm.bsky.social @dipteristsforum.bsky.social
Oh yes - female dark edged bee fly - so now I have both males and females - I guess all the solitary bees better keep an eye out for eggs being laid in their homes. N Cotswold garden 30/3/25 #beeflywatch #bombyliusmajor #ukinsects
a colour photo of a dark edged bee-fly, bee mimic, feeding from a tiny daisy on a garden lawn
Day 89 of a photo a day
89/365
#aphotoaday2025
#lumixphotography
#photography
#naturephotography
#DarkEdgedBee-fly
#Bombyliusmajor
#beemimic
#beefly
#insects
#gardenwildlife
#gardening
#spring2025
A Dark-edged Bee-fly approaches a pulmonaria flower. It's a bee mimic, with a brown furry pile covering its body, long spindly legs, a long slender proboscis which is permanently extended forwards, and wings with a dark scalloped marking along the leading edge. This individual's eyes meet on top of the head, indicating that it's a male. In this image he's flying with both back legs extended backwards and outwards from his body, and both wings extended sideways, so he forms a kind of star shape.
Star jump:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/335243...
#insects #invertebrates #fly #BeeFly #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #BeeFlyWatch #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
A Dark-edged Bee-fly resting on an ivy leaf in a sunny garden. It's a medium-sized fly, a little under 1cm in length, and densely hairy with a tawny brown pile. Its wings, which it holds in a delta shape at rest, have a dark scalloped marking all along the fore edge. The most unusual thing about it is its long black proboscis, which is permanently extended forwards like a narwhal tusk.
Major:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/334879...
#insects #invertebrates #BeeFly #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #NatureWriting #MacroPhotography #StingsNWings #SmallWonders
Always good to see my first bee-fly of the year, Bombylius major - Dark-edged Bee-fly - in Shropshire today #Diptera #Bee-fly #BombyliusMajor
Hover fly:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/322268...
#insects #flies #BeeFly #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #GardenWildlife #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #StingsNWings
Bee-fly day:
www.blipfoto.com/entry/321855...
#insects #BeeFly #DarkEdgedBeeFly #BombyliusMajor #UKWildlife #GardenWildlife #NaturePhotography
