Black banded bee fly
The black banded bee fly is a dark brown, hairy fly. Its wings are half dark and half clear, with a zigzag line between them. You can see it from May to August, sipping from flowers like lavender and broom.
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Fun facts
Its larva is a parasite of parasites. It lives inside the larvae of flies and wasps that are themselves living inside caterpillars.
It is very common across most of Europe.
A North American cousin looks almost exactly the same and was once thought to be the same species.
The dark part of its wings almost reaches the end of its body.
Most asked questions about Black banded bee fly
?Is the black banded bee fly dangerous?
No. It cannot bite or sting.
?What does the black banded bee fly eat?
The grown-ups drink nectar and eat pollen from flowers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hemipenthes morio
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Bombyliidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Bombyliidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Hemipenthes morio (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Christian Fischer. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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