Bombyliidae
The Bombyliidae are a family of flies. Their common name is bee flies.
| Bombyliidae | |
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| Bombylius major | |
Scientific classification 
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| Unrecognized taxon (fix): | Bombyliidae |
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| Synonyms | |
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Phthiriidae | |
The Bombyliidae are a large family of flies. It has hundreds of genera, but the life cycles of most species are known poorly, or not at all. Some are very small (2 mm in length), but some can be very large for flies (wingspan of some 40 mm).[1][2]
Adults normally feed on nectar and pollen. Those with a spectacularly long proboscis are adapted to plants (such as Lapeirousia) which have long, narrow floral tubes.
The Bombyliidae include a large number of species, but for its size this is one of the least understood families of insects. There at least 4,500 described species, and certainly thousands still to be described. The adult flies usually feed on nectar and pollen, and some are important pollinators.
Bee mimics
Many Bombyliidae look like bees and so a common name for the family is the bee flies.[2] The reason is probably aposematic: the adults are safer from predators because they share the warning colours of bees. The adult females usually lay eggs near the nests of possible hosts, often in the burrows of solitary bees, wasps or beetles.
Larvae
The larval stages are predators or parasitoids of the eggs and larvae of other insects. The eggs hatch into larvae which eat the eggs and larvae of the 'host' insect. Although most bee-flies usually are fairly or highly host-specific, some species do attack a number of hosts.
Bombyliidae Media
Euchariomyia dives, a Bombyliidae in India: Note the bright bands of coloured hair, the long and thin legs and upright posture, the "delta wings", the proboscis, and the forward-pointing antennae.
Exoprosopa caliptera in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, US - note the silvery mirror stripes formed by patches of specialized hairs modified into reflecting scales
A male of Hyperalonia morio patrolling a patch of vegetation near the visitor center of Quebrada de las Higueritas in Lujan, San Luis, Argentina
Bee Fly in a southern county in the UK
Villa sp. gathering sand grains
Lepidophora lepidocera, a Nearctic realm species
A 4mm long female of Lepidanthrax in Cuyama Valley, California, showing the proportionally shorter wings and relatively larger head occurring in many of the smaller species in the family
Poecilanthrax apache in Sheldon National Antelope Refuge, Nevada, US
Macrocondyla chorista in a grassy border in San Luis province, Argentina, illustrating less common features for Bombyliidae such as a slender abdomen and white patches on the wings
References
- ↑ Weaving, Alan; Picker, Mike & Griffiths, Charles Llewellyn (2003). Field guide to insects of South Africa. New Holland. ISBN 1-86872-713-0.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hull, Frank Montgomery 1973. Bee flies of the world: the genera of the family Bombyliidae. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 0874741319. [1]