Widespread through Europe and parts of North Africa, Asia and North America.
Fine-art photographic collection
Bombylius major
A furry fly that bombs solitary-bee nests with eggs while hovering.
About this species
Dark-edged Bee-fly
Bombylius majorLinnaeus, 1758
Information reviewed15 July 2026
The dark-edged bee-fly is a nectar-feeding adult but a parasitoid during development. A female coats eggs with dust, hovers outside a mining-bee burrow and flicks them towards the entrance without landing.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Bombyliidae · Bombylius
Accepted species; the English common name is the established UK recording-scheme name. · checked 2026-07-15
Holarctic regionBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Sunny woodland edges, banks, gardens and places supporting nesting solitary bees.
Adults are mainly seen in spring.
Adults take nectar; larvae develop as parasitoids in nests of solitary bees and related hosts.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The female throws eggs into or beside host burrows from the air, using a rapid abdomen-flick while hovering.
The newly hatched larva is slender and mobile enough to crawl through the nest before transforming into a thick, sedentary feeding form.
Inside the brood cell it consumes the pollen provision and may also kill and eat the solitary-bee larva that the food was meant to support.
Sources and scientific references
More photographs
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