Everybody loves bees. But these bumbling pollinators are ten a penny. How about a pollinator who twerks? A pollinator with a bum-bag for storing sand? A pollinator that pretends it’s a bee but actually looks far cooler? A pollinator with a dark side?
All hail the dark-edged bee-fly (Bombylius major), a beautiful insect that’s been likened to a fluffy flying narwhal. An insect whose arrival in the skies of temperate Europe, North America and parts of Asia signifies that spring is here.
Bombylius major is the most common of the 10 bee-fly species found in Britain. It has a high-pitched hum like a bee and a gorgeous golden furry body like a bee but look again: unlike a four-winged bee, this fly possesses a single pair of rapier sharp wings edged in black.
This dynamic, angular flying pollinator is an acrobat, grasping petals with its front legs while continuing to hover in midair while it imbibes nectar with its dagger-like long black proboscis.
Some bee-flies are called flower thieves because they will stab the bottom of a flower as a shortcut to reach the nectar without dusting themselves in pollen and pollinating the flower. Some bee species can rob like this too.
But this bee-fly’s real dark side is even more interesting. The female lands on the ground and twerks to scoop up sand and gravel, which she uses as a protective coat and camouflage for her eggs. She cruises over solitary bees’ nests and flicks out her eggs like bombs.
In its first phase, bee-fly larvae are very active – “like toddlers,” says Erica McAlister, senior curator of diptera at London’s Natural History Museum, who nominated Bombylius major. They use false legs to bumble into a bee burrow and scoff the pollen left for the bee babies. Next they go through an unusual second metamorphosis into “a teenage stage” where they loaf around knocking back bee grubs. “Then, like a teenager, it finally leaves the bedroom and pupates,” says McAlister.
McAlister wants to find a more positive word for the ingenious animals we label parasites. “We consider parasites to be horrible and predators are ‘good’ but there’s no difference,” she says. “If you see a bee-fly you know you’ve got a healthy bee population. Bee-flies are harbingers of spring. The female is a fly who twerks. She’s got a little bumbag. Wow! How did that evolve?”
So come on bee-lovers, why not lend your vote this year to a pollinator with panache – a twerking, thieving, deceiving spring beauty? Cast aside anthropomorphic judgments and show your love for this signifier of healthy gardens and ecosystems, an exemplar of the wonder of evolution.
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Between 24 March and 2 April, we will be profiling a shortlist of 10 of the invertebrates chosen by readers and selected by our wildlife writers from more than 2,500 nominations. The voting for our 2025 invertebrate of the year will run from midday on Wednesday 2 April until midday on Friday 4 April.
