Golden-tailed beebandit
The golden-tailed beebandit is a robber fly dressed up as a bumblebee. Its hairy body is black, white and yellow, just like a bumblebee from its home area. But it is a hunter that sits and waits, then catches bees in the air.
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Fun facts
Its Latin name fautrix means patroness or protector.
It is the only one of its kind living in California.
The mother lays her eggs in the ground.
Its brown wings and black middle part help to tell it apart from a real bumblebee.
Most asked questions about Golden-tailed beebandit
?Is the golden-tailed beebandit a bee?
No. It is a fly that looks like a bumblebee, and it hunts bees.
?What does the golden-tailed beebandit eat?
It catches honey bees, wasps and other insects in flight.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mallophora fautrix
- Named by
- Osten-Sacken, 1887
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Asilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Asilidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Golden-tailed bee bandit, Bee killer robber fly
Where the facts come from
- Mallophora fautrix (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 Pdeley. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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