Bee Fly on Beebalm 2018

This bee fly was spotted in my Topeka KS yard on Jun 27 2018. A bee fly is a fly that mimics a bee. I slowed this video down so you could see its behavior. See its long beak like mouth part (proboscis). Well it uses that to feed on long tubular flowers, like those of this beebalm. Amazingly its beak is as long as its entire body. I love how they can hover. They are amazing. This insect is a member of the bee fly family (Bombyliidae) which is made up of 100s of genera and 1000s of species. And the bee fly is a parasite of other insects. The female bee fly will lay eggs on its host insects’ eggs or larva. When the bee fly eggs hatch they will consume the host insect killing it in the process.