Species introCountry intro
Bee Fly
There were some truly crazy insects out there today. These guys fly around like miniature humming birds and never seem to stop flapping their wings - even when they set down for a drink! I was chasing them around quite a bit and didn't even realize until I got home that I captured two different species!
Very little species-specific information available. The general bombyliid life cycle is described in Marshall (2006). Females coat eggs with a sticky substance in order to gather a protective layer of soil when they are dropped into burrows of potential hosts. First instar larvae actively penetrate host nests, then molt into sedentary ectoparasitoids, a phenomenon known as hypermetamorphosis. Pupae are equipped with rigid ornamentation to assist escape from the burrow. Adults resemble bees as a.. more
comments (1)