Hobbies And Interests
Bee Fly
The bee fly has a husky body like a bumble bee, with a spearlike appendage attached to its mouth. The bee fly does no harm to animals; the fearsome, stingerlike appendage is actually the fly's proboscis, a tonguelike organ used to procure nectar from flowers similar to that of moths or butterflies. Bee flies also produce the characteristic buzzing of bees and hover in front of a blossom to lap up the nectar. Unlike bees, the bee fly can balance on a flower with its thin legs.
Cicada Killers
With a body of brown marked with bands of yellow and black, the cicada killer looks like an enormous bee. The cicada killers constitute one of the larger species of wasps, measuring a length of 1 1/2 inches. Unlike bees, cicada killers, like all other species of wasps, possess skinny waists and little hair on their bodies. Although males engage in aggressive behavior more often than females, only females can sting.
Clearwing Borer Moth
Clearwing borers are moths with stocky bodies touched with orange and yellow. These insects possess two sets of wings: a set of brownish, scaly forewings and another set of clear hind wings. Clearwing borers lay their eggs in the woody parts of trees, such as the trunk or branches. Once the immature forms, or caterpillars, emerge from their eggs, they begin feeding on the wood. With a massive caterpillar infestation, trees produce yellow or wilting leaves and could die.
Hoverfly
Syrphid flies, or hoverflies, exhibit the brownish-gold banding typical of bee mimics. Like bees, these species of flies flitter around blossoms to retrieve nectar and then carry the collected pollen to fertilize other flowers. Unlike bees, however, the hoverfly also flies backward and seems to float for periods of time in one place. The larval forms benefit agriculture by feeding on aphids or other plant pests. Syrphid flies do not sting and their coloring does not deter predation from critters such as wasps, spiders and birds.
Robber Fly
More than 7,000 species of robber flies exist on Earth, with about 1,000 occurring in the United States alone. Some species of robber fly mimic the bumble bee's hairy, stocky body shape, with abdomens presenting alternating brown and black striping. Ironically, one of the robber fly's favorite foods is the bee; therefore, the camouflaged insect can fly up unannounced to pounce on a bee. The fly then injects its victim with substances that both paralyze and digest its prey from the inside. The insect then tows its meal to an undisturbed area to slurp the liquefied contents.
Yellow Jackets
Yellow jackets live as groups in nests, just like bees. These wasps have banding like bees, but the bands are yellow rather than golden brown. Yellow jackets display more aggression than bees, often intolerant of the close proximity of humans and other animals to their nests. Yellow jackets present a greater hazard to humans because human food lures the insects closer to human habitats and activities; additionally, these insects, unlike honeybees, can sting repeatedly without dying. Yellow jackets and other wasp species display Mullerian mimicry in which two different creatures resemble each other in appearance and defensive measures.