6 Apr 25 - Dotted Bee Fly

One of my favourite Insect groups are Bee Flies. They are easily overlooked as another Bee or Hoverfly if you aren't looking at them properly. I was pleased to see three Dotted Bee Flies at St Aldhelms and to get the chance to photograph this individual.

Dotted Bee Fly: The long proboscis, dotted wings and appearance in early Spring makes this species easy to identify. The other Spring species, Dark-edged Bee Fly has a wavey dark brown leading edge to the wing and no dots

There are four species of Bombylius Bee Flies found in the UK and they all have this distinctively-shaped proboscis. The other six non-Bombylius Bee Flies that occur in the UK, do not have the large proboscis.