20 Wednesday Mar 2024
As well as the lovely Comma, Monday’s walk also produced my first bee-fly sightings for 2024. We only have Dark-edged bee-flies (Bombylius major) in my area and these were all males, as they usually emerge before the females. It’s so heartening to see these wonderful little signs of Spring.
19 Monday Jun 2023
Posted in insects
I was bending down to return my camera to my backpack as I was leaving Aberbargoed Grasslands NNR last week when I noticed something small and fuzzy flying over the earth below. Not a bee, not a hoverfly, too small for the one bee-fly (Dark-bordered) I recognise but its actions were typical of that bee-fly – hovering very low to the ground, taking particular interest in a small hole in the dirt and, as I continued to watch, seeming to flick its rear end towards that hole, the usual action of a bee-fly flicking its eggs into the hole of an unfortunate mining bee. Once home, I checked online and found an excellent resource from the Soldierflies and Allies Recording Scheme (‘Identifying bee-flies in genus Bombylius‘, compiled by Martin C. Harvey, version 3, May 2019), which pointed me towards Western bee-fly (Bombylius canescens). My identification was later confirmed by a representative of the Scheme, and an entomologist pal, when I posted photos on Twitter. A first for me!
05 Wednesday Apr 2023
Tags
Bee-fly, Bombylius major, British bee-flies, dandelion, Dark-edged bee-flies, value of Dandelion flowers
Apparently, today is #NationalDandelionDay. Dandelions are brilliant for so many reasons (I’ve blogged about their value to insects previously – see Delicious Dandelions, April 2022) but what better reason than the food they provide to all the gorgeous little bee-flies that are currently emerging all over the country.
These are Dark-edged bee-flies (Bombylius major), the only bee-fly species we have locally though there are other species in Britain. The top bundle of fluff is a male and the bottom is a female. The way to tell the sexes apart is to look at their eyes – if there’s a gap between the eyes, it’s a female. The males usually emerge first, with the females following a week to ten days later.
18 Friday Mar 2022
Actually, keen-eyed bee-fly fanciers have been spotting these fuzzy little beasties for a week or so now, and by 14 March, 14 records – all in England – had been entered in to the recording system. And yesterday, in warm sunshine and alongside a sheltered footpath with plenty of flowering Lesser celandine, I finally saw my first bee-fly of the year. This is a Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major); although there are other species in Britain, this is the only species local to me.
For everything you might ever want to know about bee-flies, there’s a fantastic presentation The A to Z of Bee-flies on the FSC Biodiversity channel on YouTube.
30 Tuesday Mar 2021
Posted in spring
My, what long legs you have! My, what a long proboscis you have! But this is no big bad wolf – it’s a bee-fly, a Dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major) to be precise.
There are several species of bee-fly in Britain but this is the only one I’ve seen – we don’t appear to get any others locally. Still, it’s fabulous to see these furry creatures flitting from flower to flower again. Yet another sign of spring!
The Soldierflies and Allies Recording Scheme has been running Bee-fly Watch for the last six years and wants your help to track the emergence and the spread of bee-flies in Britain. You can find out more on their website.
23 Monday Mar 2020
I wish I could take the credit for that title but it came from a tweet I read earlier today by the social media team at Buglife, The Invertebrate Conservation Trust.
The tweet was reporting how the sunshine of the past couple of days has brought out the bee-flies and so it has been in my area too. Yesterday, on the sheltered slopes of a local park which, luckily, I had almost to myself, I saw my first four bee-flies of 2020.
These are Dark-edged bee-flies (Bombylius major), the only species I’ve ever seen, and they were feasting on a glorious carpet of Lesser celandine and Speedwell.
There are several other species of bee-fly, and a couple of similar non-bee-fly species. The BRC (Biological Records Centre) website has a most excellent photo identification guide that can be downloaded here. Good luck with finding some fabulous flying fuzzballs in your locale.
earthstar 
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