Bumblebee blacklet
The bumblebee blacklet is a furry hoverfly with a black face and a reddish orange, hairy tail end. It has a dark smudge in the middle of each see-through wing. You can find it sipping from big flat flower heads along forest paths in summer.
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Fun facts
It has long white hairs at the base of its front legs.
It flies from June to September and is easiest to spot in July and August.
In autumn its larvae live hidden inside plant stems and roots, where they are safe and have food all around them.
Like other hoverflies, it can hang still in the air in one spot.
Most asked questions about Bumblebee blacklet
?Can the bumblebee blacklet sting?
No. It is a hoverfly, and flies have no sting.
?What does the bumblebee blacklet eat?
The grown-ups visit flowers like hogweed and angelica. The larvae eat the inside of hogweed stems and parsnip roots.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cheilosia illustrata
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Cheilosia illustrata (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 James K. Lindsey. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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