Today, we were busy in the garden, planting new wildflower plants that I bought as plugs a few months ago, and beginning to prepare the ground for pond improvements, when I heard a whining buzz above me and then, there it was, happily nectaring on the remaining primrose flowers.
This is, I believe, a dark-edged (or large) bee-fly, with the dark wing edges more obvious in the photo to the left. However, in my opinion, the most impressive feature of the bee-fly is more obvious in the photo above - the ridiculously long proboscis they use to probe flowers like primroses and violets for nectar. Don't be alarmed by this feature of the bee-fly - they are harmless.
Bee-flies are not bees, but they do parasitise the larvae of bees. This particular species targets mining bees by hovering close to their nesting area and flicking eggs to land near the nest entrance. The bee-fly larva will then eat the bee larva.
As much as I also love bees, it is fascinating to learn about the complex and intertwined life cycles of species which interact with each other, and is yet another reason we need to improve our gardens for a myriad of species, rather than focusing on just a few.
References:
Chinery, M. (2005) Collins Complete Guide to British Insects. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Falk, S. (2015) Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/dark-edged-bee-fly accessed 04/04/20
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