scaly bee fly

Scaly bee fly is a relatively large, nest parasitizing (kleptoparasitic) fly. It occurs throughout the United States east of the Great Plains, but it is rare above 42° North. It is rare in Minnesota.

Adults are active from May through October. They are found in open areas near deciduous woodlands. They feed on flower nectar. The larvae live in the nests of solitary wasps of the families Vespidae and Sphecidae. They eat the provisions that are stored in the nest for the wasp larva.

Scaly bee fly is said to resemble bee in color and a robber fly in size and shape. However, they do not sting and they do not bite.

Adults are about ⅜″ (10 mm) in length. The body is strongly hunch-backed, somewhat L-shaped when viewed from the side. When measuring both legs of the “L”, they are 7⁄16″ to 13⁄16″ (11.6 to 21.4 mm) in length. The base color is dark brown and there are areas of long pale hairs, long pale scales, and long dark scales. The pale scales are usually pale yellow, sometimes white.

The head is slightly narrower than the thorax. There are long spoon-shaped scales on the margins of the plate on the face above the upper lip (clypeus). The antennae are long, much longer than the head. They are densely covered with long flattened scales. The tube-like mouthpart (proboscis) is relatively short, not as long as the antennae.

The thorax is densely covered with pale yellow scales except for three longitudinal, bare stripes. The plate on the first segment of the thorax (pronotum) is well developed and prominent.

The wings are at least as long as the abdomen. They are dark smoky brown, and there are scales on the upper surface toward the base. Vein M₂ is present. Vein R₂₊₃ is not connected by a cross vein to vein R₄.

The legs are long, slender, and dark brown.

The abdomen is long and cylindrical. The first abdominal segment (A1) has long pale-yellow hairs on the front margin and a dense tuft of long pale-yellow hairs on each side. A2, A3, and A5 also have pale yellow tufts on each side. A4 has no yellow hairs. A6, A7, and A8 have long, dark brown scales on each side.

Female total length: 9⁄16″ to ¾″ (13.7 to 18.7 mm)

Male total length: 7⁄16″ to 13⁄16″ (11.6 to 21.4 mm)

Open areas near deciduous woodlands

May through October

Larvae eat the collected food and/or the larvae of solitary wasps.

Flower nectar

Sources

29, 30, 82, 83.

Lamas, C. J. E. (2013). A Revision of the New World genus Lepidophora Westwood, 1835 (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Ecliminae) with a key to the species. Zootaxa.

Infraorder
The family Bombyliidae was formerly placed in Muscomorpha, one of two infraorders of Brachycera, a suborder of Diptera. However, Brachycera did not contain all of the descendants of the last common ancestor (paraphyletic). It was split into five extant (still existing) and one extinct infraorder. Orthorrhapha is now considered obsolete and has not been used in decades, but it persists in printed literature and on some online sources. A recent revision of the order Diptera (Pope, et al., 2011) revived the name Orthorrhapha, but this has not been widely accepted.

Subfamily
The genus Lepidophora was formerly placed in the subfamily Ecliminae. A recent analysis of the phylogeny, classification, and biogeography of the family Bombyliidae (Xuankun and Yeates, 2019) proposed a new tribal classification for almost all genera. Five previously recognized tribes have been revised, and four new tribes have been erected within the subfamily Bombyliinae. The former subfamily Ecliminae became a tribe in the subfamily Bombyliinae. The proposed moved has received a mixed reception. ITIS, NCBI, and BugGuide place Lepidophora in the subfamily Ecliminae. Catalog of Life and iNaturalist place it in the subfamily Bombyliinae.

Lamas, C. J. E. (2013). A Revision of the New World genus Lepidophora Westwood, 1835 (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Ecliminae) with a key to the species. Zootaxa.

BEE FLY Lepidophora lepidocera slow motion hovering
Rob Curtis

Scaly Bee Fly visits Hempvine flowers
Stuff I saw outside

Bri Hines-Parrish
5/27/2025

Location: Grovetown, GA