A Tiger Bee Fly (Xenox tigrinus) peeps in to see what I'm doing. As I was photographing her, I could see her antennae swiveling around, sniffing me.

#fly #flies #bombyliidae #diptera #insects #arthropods #photography

A charming bee fly on a buttercup, for #flyfriday .

#fly #flies #bombyliidae #diptera #insects #arthropods #nature #photography #plants #flowers #flowersofmastodon

@biodiversitypix

ONE OF THE BEE FLIES (Sparnopolius fulvus, Wied.)
"No butterfly or any other creature of the air could be more beautiful than this dream of early summer. The black velvet body, into which the sunlight sank and disappeared, the fringe of golden hairs along its sides, the steel gray, myriad-facet eyes of which its head was made, and the delicately formed wings, so thin that the light in passing through them was refracted into rainbow tints, made it seem to me more beautiful than almost any of those gorgeous forms of insect life which sometimes fill the clearings in Brazilian forests. It does seem strange that such a thing as this should live its other life a parasite grub within the larva of some caterpillar, or in the egg-case of some grasshoppers but so it seems to do. It spends its childhood as a disease, and its mating days as a dainty fly among the nectar-hearing flowers."

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4428248#page/160/mode/1up

#entomology #BeeFly #bombyliidae

Around the beginning of May the snow will be gone and the first flowers in the forest (Trailing Arbutus) will be open to feed the Bee Flies.
Still two months to go. It's a sunny -23 C this morning 🥶.

#flies #FlyFriday #Bombyliidae #insects #nature #photography #macrophotography

This skinny bombyliid looks as sad as the daisy he's perched on. Poor fellow!

#fly #flies #bombyliidae #diptera #insects #arthropods #nature #photography #macrophotography

A bee-fly (Bombylius major) on a daisy, enjoying nectar and sunshine. Bee-flies are adorable, with their furry body and long pointy snout. The look like cartoon bees.

#fly #flies #Bombyliidae #diptera #insects #arthropods #nature #photography

A #Bombyliidae #fly for #InverteFest . This is Geron calvus. He looks more like a mosquito than the chubby bumblebee shape I think of bombyliids having. Also, why do these #flies have such long mouthparts? He doesn't need them here.

#diptera #insect #nature #photography

RT @Bertonemyia: I wish people would think of this insect & the many other beautiful #Diptera out there, instead of recoiling in disgust at the mention of the word "#fly"

I mean, just look at its fluffy white butt!!!! 🥰

bee fly #Ogcodocera leucoprocta (#Bombyliidae)
GA, USA

🐦🔗: https://nitter.eu/Plants_EFSA/status/1526676979952517121