HUMBLE-BEE FLIES. 355 



on the wing, is sometimes no easy matter, we soon 

 find that, notwithstanding its bee-like form, it is a 

 genuine two-winged fly, but that it may easily be 

 distinguished from most other Diptera by the great 

 length of its proboscis, which is nearly as long as the 

 body. It is by means of this organ that it is enabled 

 to suck out the juices of the flowers, whilst hanging 

 over them in the air, exactly in the manner of a hum- 

 ming-bird ; and it is the rapidity with which its wings 

 are moved during this operation, that renders those 

 organs invisible, and produces the loud humming 

 sound, which might certainly justify those unac- 

 quainted with entomology, if at the first glance they 

 mistook this little creature for a Bee. 



The Bombylius major, which is the species of these 

 Humble-bee Flies most commonly met with, usually 

 measures rather more than a third of an inch in 

 length, and has the whole body thickly clothed with 

 upright tawny hairs ; the wings are transparent, with 

 a broad dark brown waved stripe along their anterior 

 margin. The antennae are nearly as long as the head, 

 placed close together at their base, and composed of 

 six joints, of which the first is rather long and stout, 

 the second very short, and the third nearly twice as 

 long as the first, and terminated by three minute 

 joints forming a slender tip. 



This structure of the antennae, although common 

 to a good many species of the tribe to which this 

 insect belongs, is neither universal amongst them nor 

 peculiar to them, the apparent third joint being some- 

 times articulated throughout its length, sometimes 

 totally destitute of articulations, and occasionally, 

 although rarely, furnished with a slender bristle, such 

 as we shall find to be common amongst the other 



