This little critter looks a lot like a bee (it’s yellow, fuzzy, and foraging flowers), but if you look closely, you’ll see it has only one pair of wings (bees have two). This feature distinguishes this as a fly, specifically a bee fly (family Bombyliidae). Though they look similar, these flies grow up very differently from bees. Bee flies are parasitic and develop on the larvae and pupae of other insects, such as wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, grasshoppers, and other flies.
Bee fly (family Bombyliidae).
Justin Ballew, ©2022, Clemson Extension
For more information see, University of California, Riverside: Diptera, Bombyliidae, and NCSU Bombyliidae.
