This insect was flying around the Beach Daisies this week. At first glance it looks like a bee. Is it?
I don’t think so. Like this hover fly and this robber fly, this fly has developed bee-like markings for protection. Other creatures might steer clear of it thinking that it can sting. But it can’t.
How do we know it’s a fly? For one, the short antennae sticking out of the front of its head are a good clue. This one closely resembles a Drone Fly, though it is very hard to tell for sure. Its markings aren’t exactly the same, so it may be different but it is likely a close relative. Like a lot of other insects, the adults drink nectar as this one appears to be doing here.
I watched it for a while moving from flower to flower. At one point, it started to stretch its abdomen a bit. Suddenly, it pushed out a long orange blob out of its backside!
See it? My first thought was that maybe it had laid some eggs. But, the more I looked at it I started to wonder- did this fly just poop on my flowers?
Any ideas?
I know that bugs are not cute, but this bee is so gorgeous
I can’t identify as well as I have never seen an egg nor a poop of a bee
Lovely lilac flower.
What gorgeous detail.
This was an interesting reading. I could never see the differences, not even with my glasses. That’s where macro shots great value is; all you pictures are lovely but the third macro really shows all details of this little critter. Fantastic shots.
Thanks for sharing them on Macro Flower Saturday!
These are magnificent shots. I will sometimes see different insects that I think are bees but are not so it’s difficult for me to tell the difference.
I enjoy seeing the mix of insects and bees found on the flowers. The beach daisy is beautiful. Great macro of the fly.
that is so funny. love the macro too, do you use any particular lens?
Just a Canon zoom lens that also has good macro capabilities. I’m not a camera expert- the lens came with the Canon Powershot camera I bought a couple of years ago.
I’ve always thought of them as bees, learn something new today. Your macro are awesome!
I say its a wannabe Bee! Ha! And it is laughing at you (us?) and pooped to ‘mark’ his presence just like my dogs! What a fun story for the weekend!
First of all, your photographs are stunning. I can see you are learning some new tricks or got some new equipment.
Secondly, I think your “poop” might be a pollinia from another plant. Plant sometimes package their pollen in structures that attach to insects. The fly probably cleaned it off.
Thanks! Same equipment- just getting better at taking macro photos, and happened to have some nice lighting.
I hadn’t thought of that possibility. I saw it come out of the fly- at least I think I did. I didn’t see it sitting on its body at all. Suddenly it stretched and the orange came out. There were similar orange blobs on other flowers nearby, too. It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Thanks for educating, I never thought flies go for flowers
Hum, well looking at it again, I don’t see anything stuck to the flies, so it probably is feces. Doesn’t look like what comes out of houseflies
[...] Bee Mimic [...]