Along with the early emerging bee species in the spring, we get the early emerging bee flies in the Touraine Loire Valley. The bee flies time their emergence to coincide with the bees because they are parasites of the ground nesting bees. This makes them sound like the bad guys, but in fact, it is an indication that your population of solitary bees is healthy and can support a bit of natural predation.
The bee fly you will see most often in the spring is the Dark-edged Bee Fly Bombylius major (Fr. Grand bombyle). It is the most important pollinator of Primroses Primula vulgaris (Fr. Primavere), and it loves other early wild flowers such as lungwort.
They are fascinating to watch, with their long tongue which cannot be retracted, their long spindly legs, which they use like stilts to steady themselves on flowers, and their fluffy bottoms, which they coat with sand in order to better control the eggs they are throwing in to mining bee nests. Watch them in action for even just 10 minutes and you will be as captivated as I am.
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