THE BEE-FLIES 



(Family Bombyliidce.) 



The handsome, stout-bodied, active flies of this family are 

 commonly known as " bee-flies" from their superficial resem- 

 blance to bees. There are over 1,400 species known. They 

 usually have spotted or banded wings and their bodies are 

 clothed with hair. They poise in the air in their flight and are 

 most frequently found in sunny openings in the woods. They are 

 distinguished from allied flies by the characters mentioned, by 

 their venation, slender legs, small, close three-jointed antennae and 

 rather long proboscis. They are distinctively flower-flies, fre- 

 quenting blossoms and feeding upon the pollen and nectar which 

 they are able to reach with their long beak. Some of them some- 



Fig. 76. — Anthrax hypomelas. 



what resemble the gad-flies of the genus Chrysops, and others, 

 like Systfopus, have a slender abdomen swollen towards the tip 

 and look like mud-dauber wasps. Their larval habits are ex- 

 tremely interesting and they are parasitic upon wild bees and in 

 the egg-cases of grasshoppers as well as upon certain caterpillars. 

 On the whole they may be termed beneficial insects. 



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