Bombyliidae

Bombyliidae
Adult Bee Fly Lepidophora lepidocera Photo: Bruce Marlin
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Suborder:	Brachycera
Superfamily:	Asiloidea
Family:	Bombyliidae
Subfamilies
Many Subfamilies

The Bombyliids are a large family of flies with hundreds of genera, but their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some protection from predators.

The larval stage are predators or parasitoids of other insect eggs and larvae. The adult females usually deposit eggs in the vicinity of possible hosts, quite often in the burrows of beetles or wasps/solitary bees. Where most often in the insect world parasitoids are highly specific in the host species that they will infect, it is thought that bombyliids are opportunistic and will use a variety of hosts.

While bombyliids have a great variety of species, rarely are individuals of any one species abundant, and this is perhaps one of the poorest known families of insects. There are at least 4,500 described species, and probably thousands as of yet undescribed.

Species include:

Major Bee Fly (Bombylius major)
Williston's Bee Fly (Poecilanthrax willistoni)
Bomber Fly (Heterostylum robustum)

External Links

• Bee Flies of North America - diagnostic photographs, natural history
• Bee Fly - Lepidophora lepidocera large format photographs, descriptions, natural history
• Bee Fly Bombylius major
• Bee Fly Aldrichia sp.
• Bee Fly - Anthrax sp.
• Bee Fly Villa sp.