Dotted Bee-fly
2nd April 2009, ThursdayYesterday four of these furry flies were feeding on flowers in my front garden in Rye Harbour Village, they are often the first signs of spring when they appear during the first warm days in March. They can be found hovering around the flowers extracting the nectar through a long proboscis. The larvae of Dotted Bee-flies are parasites of solitary bees, during the 60’s and 70’s the population crashed due to the decline of slolitary bees caused by the widespread intensification of agriculture. The Dotted Bee-fly is classified as nationally scarce in Great Britain.
