noun

• A squat, hairy fly resembling a bee, that hovers to feed from flowers using its long tongue. Its larvae typically parasitize other insects, especially bees and wasps.

  Family Bombyllidae: many genera

  ‘Bee flies favour warm, and sunny localities’

  More example sentences

  • ‘I most often see bee flies hovering around flowers, or if resting, usually on the ground, on bare soil.’
  • ‘A bee fly is nectaring on the blossom.’