Bee-flies with The Biological Recording Company

Learn about the Bee-flies (Bombyliidae) of the UK with tutor Tony Madgwick.

Bee-flies (family Bombyliidae) are a charismatic family of true flies in which the most common species famously mimic ground-nesting solitary bees, having a round, brown, furry body. With their long straight proboscis obvious at rest and when feeding on nectar while hovering, and their fast darting flight, they easily attract an observer’s attention.

The life cycles of bee-flies are fascinating variations on a theme. While the adults obtain nutrients from flowers, the larvae are parasitoids, cleptoparasites, or even hyperparasitoids, of their hosts (typically solitary bees and wasps). Bee-flies are most often encountered in warm, sunny habitats such as gardens, woodland edges, and open sandy ground, and they are most often seen in early spring.

This entoLEARN webinar will cover the 9 species of bee-fly that occur within the UK mainland:

• Bombylius major (Dark-edged Bee-fly)
• Bombylius discolor (Dotted Bee-fly)
• Bombylius canescens (Western Bee-fly)
• Bombylius minor (Heath Bee-fly)
• Villa cingulata (Downland Villa)
• Villa modesta (Dune Villa)
• Thyridanthrax fenestratus (Mottled Bee-fly)
• Phthiria pulicaria (Flea Bee-fly)
• Anthrax anthrax (Black-winged Bee-fly)

For more information and to book your place, visit The Biological Recording Company Eventbrite page.